TSCC: The Beginning to the End
by Max Doe
Summary: New danger faces the Connor team when they find out that Skynet could be completed earlier then expected. With the help of an Engineer that was an accident in coming back to the past, can they stop the evolution of Skynet or watch the world burn.
1. Intel

Disclaimer: I don't own Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I just have an imagination about crazy stuff and this is one of them. Sorry for any mistakes I make. It a season two I created.

Full Summary: New danger faces the Connor team when they find out that Skynet could be completed earlier then expected. With the help of an Engineer that was an accident in coming back to the past, can they stop the evolution of Skynet or watch the world burn.

This story started before the second season. I will try my best to put in things that the new season have into my story.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Intel**

On the kitchen table spread out, numerous newspaper articles from the entire L.A. regain were laid out. As the TV was on the FOX channel eleven news, Cameron was reading the inquirer newspaper, analyzing and remembering every detail of each page in case of possible new threats, while still paying attention to the TV behind her. Reading the articles, she also took interest in the technology section of each newspaper and magazine she could find at a news stand, hoping it will lead any information of finding the Turk since Sarkissian already gave it to his employer. However, while her computer chip was processing all of this, Cameron was particularly searching for something else in the papers, something she's been trying to find since the Connor's and her time jumped from 1999.

A car noise outside put Cameron on alert as it was two in the morning and most humans were asleep at this time. She put down the newspaper in her hand and walked over to the kitchen window. The window had blinders for her to easily look outside as it also concealed her appearance. Slowly and scanning the entire street block like a surveillance camera, Cameron saw a man coming out of his car carrying yellow folders filled with documents that he could barely hold to his chest. He was wobbling back and fourth of the heavy load in his arms as if he was drunk, trying to stay balanced approaching his house. Luckily, he wasn't a possible threat to the Connor's as Cameron knew every person that live on there block and also ten blocks in the vicinity just to be safe.

After taking three minutes to scan the area again and making sure the man across the street went into his house, Cameron went back to the table. She picked up the previous newspaper she was holding and continued her reading.

Hearing the rustling of the papers outside his room, John was already up ten minutes ago from not being able to sleep lately. Sitting on his bed wearing sweat pants and a blue t-shirt, he rubbed his eyes as he glanced at his alarm clock saying two o'clock. John thought this early in the morning; his protector could be a little quieter knowing she doesn't sleep, but humans needed it to function during the day.

Although being up wasn't a waste of his time as he had to go to the bathroom. He stood up, walked to his door and opened it. The bathroom wasn't far from his room as John walked out. He glanced at Cameron for a second, as she didn't even turn in his direction, figuring she already knew it was him from her superior hearing, and then went straight into the bathroom.

After he was done, John went to the sink and washed his hands. Turning off the faucet, his eyes wondered up as he was staring at himself in the mirror. He still had a few cuts on his face trying to save Cameron from herself, but he was actually fixated on himself in general. He could see his eyes for once since he cute his hair short.

Sometimes he missed hiding behind the long bangs, wanting to still be invisible to everybody around him, but told himself he must grow up or his destiny will always dictate his life, which he still doesn't want and pray it never comes true. If he didn't like his life now, it would be hundred times worse if the future his mother, Cameron, and Derek version comes true. Though he begged his mother to stop Judgment Day a few months back or should he say eight years back in time, it maybe himself in the end that must carry the mission to success. If it does come to terms, he told himself he will be ready at any cost to stop Judgment Day.

The continued rustling of papers broke John's train of thought. He always wanted to know what Cameron was actually searching for in the newspapers she gathered. He opened the bathroom door and walk over to the kitchen as she was still concentrated on the newspaper in her hand. John observed some of the cluttered mess on the table and then looked at her.

"What's good in the papers?" John asked trying to make small conversation. "Crime, global warming, war…" His eyes shifted to a Teen Magazine under the L.A. Times as he gave her a curious look.

"Yeah you'll find lots of Global Affairs in there." He said sarcastically to that choice of reading.

"It is to help better understand the young generation of this time and to successfully accomplish the mission by blending in. It's like you said, don't want to act like a freak." Cameron said in her proper tone while still keeping her eyes glued to the newspaper in her hand.

John smirked about her comment as he said that on there first day of high school. He cleared his throat still feeling nervous around her sometimes and focused on the newspapers on the table.

"Need any help?" He asked.

Cameron finally looked at him realizing the nervousness in his voice. She wondered was he still afraid of her since she tried to kill him. It was hard sometimes for her to read human behavior, especially boys.

"No. It's not necessary," said Cameron and then notice the time, always being precise located on her view mode. "School starts in five hours, forty-three minutes and twelve seconds. You should acquire sleep. There is a test in chemistry class today and you will need sleep to function properly while taking it."

John expression turned serious. "Are you sure? I thought the test was on Thursday?"

"Today is Thursday." She told him.

John cursed under his breath as he lost track of time and thought it was Wednesday. With everything happening in his life, dates of the week and school somehow didn't matter when he's running for his life every five minutes.

"This is great. I don't even know what's on the test," said John rubbing his eyes as he was still sleepy. "Since chemistry is first period, which will be in five hours, forty-two minutes and….whatever seconds…"

"Two seconds." Cameron quickly added.

"I'm going to study to at least pass with a C-. Mr. Wood love rewording everything on his tests to gear us to fail. I swear…sometimes it's his mission to torture students." John stated.

"Not torture," said Cameron. "But to think outside the box to prepare students in there future careers when they grow up to face the hardships of life."

"No joke." John chuckled about her explanation as he was sometimes amused by them.

"Have fun on Intel gathering…" A tabloid magazine caught John attention next to the Teen Magazine saying found the real Bat Boy in bold print and chuckled. "Or whatever."

John started to walk away back to his bedroom to prepare himself of hard studying which he just wanted to sleep until school started.

"I'll wake you up in less then five hours." Cameron said seeing him wave at her without turning around and then closed his door.

About to go back to her reading, the newspaper that John was previously holding caught her attention. She picked it up as a tag line stood out the most on the entire page. She speed read it as it said mysterious explosion of six men found dead in an alley in San Diego. Reading the rest of the article she looked at the date as it happened two weeks ago.

Being too occupied by the news article she quickly glanced at her right hand as it was shaking a little. Her eyes widen, surprise that she wasn't commanding her hand to move. It was moving without her order. She looked around the house to make sure nobody was watching, afraid that the others in the house would think she was still malfunctioning and then glanced back at her hand. Without noticing, her hand stopped shaking. She began to wiggle her fingers around as she regained control of her own body again. For the first time, she felt worried that it was happening so soon.

* * *

At the Los Angeles National Cemetery surrounded around a coffin, relatives and friends were grieving over the lost of there love one. Over the coffin, the American Flag was placed on top as Agent Greta Simpson picture was on a stand beside it. Jason Ellison was listening to the Sermon perching about Simpson accomplishments in her life as he heard crying from two young adults. Ellison immediately recognized them as Simpson's two older children. They wept for there mother's death that he couldn't prevent.

His gaze focused back onto the coffin where his partner laid. He felt powerless and weak that he couldn't save her, knowing it was his fault in the first place. If he wasn't stubborn, if he ignored the feeling like Greta warned him about, they all could have been saved. The truth, that Sarah Conner wasn't a nut case, that machines exist, and her vision of machines ruling the world will possible come true, was frightening to him. Since his eyes have been open, he felt lost.

Every waking moment of his life since that horrible incident, he wondered why the machine let him go. Why, it, a machine with no emotions of sympathy or soul, would keep him alive. Ellison remembered it, like he was reliving the event right now. The smell of blood stench in the air mixed with gun powder as he saw his men being tossed out of a door one by one like rag dolls. How cold he forget that event, pursuing the false FBI Agent named Kester.

Face pealing off resembling more of a dead corpse, gun aimed at him and M16 in his right hand, he thought he was staring at death, the grim reaper but disguised in metal. Seeing his dead partner on the ground, Ellison thought it was the end for him, but luck was on his side as the machine walked away and out of the white gate like nothing happened. Why was he speared, he thought…Or was he.

Gun fire went off from the Marines riffles as this startled Ellison out of his shattered thoughts. He rubbed his eyes trying not to recall those images as they were plaguing his mind even when he was conscious. Not only was this destroying his sleep, but his Agency thinks that he have become a whack job since the incident of telling them the truth. All of his colleges don't believe him. His boss already put him on special watch telling him to take some time off. Ellison knew it would be worse if he stood around the house and did nothing. His haunting dreams wouldn't allow him to rest until he caught the machine. He had to avenge his comrades' murder or make sure that _it_ doesn't end up in the wrong hands, or the Conner's future will come sooner then expected.

Glancing to his right, Ellison was surprised that he didn't notice a woman was standing next to him. He tried not to be obvious by gazing at her, but something about this woman made it hard to ignore her. She was very pretty, in her early thirties; her frizzy dirty blonde hair was pulled in a pony tail as she wore a black business suit that one would wear at his Agency. In her right hand was a white rose as he figured she was waiting to place it on top of Greta's casket.

Ellison wanted to say something to her but he didn't want to disturb her judging by her face expression she was deep in thought.

"How long you've known Greta?" She asked already noticing the looks he has been giving her.

Ellison cleared his throat as he knew she was speaking to him and embarrassed at the same time.

"Over ten years…and you?" Ellison asked her.

"Not that long," she responded. "But I did like her strong opinions of the way I should perform my job sometimes."

Ellison smirked. "I know that feeling. She always had inspiring words for me…and maybe I should have listen to them a little bit more." He gazed back at Greta's coffin feeling guilty.

"In _this_ line of work, I'm use to these," She said not taking her eyes off Greta's coffin. "Before the New Year starts for my New Years Resolution, I tell myself I would minimize coming to _these_ every year. But it's always broken before the summer begins."

Ellison look at her wondering what was her line of work, feeling a connection towards this woman. Not a connection of knowing her, but a connection in understanding death and losing friends in the line of duty.

"Sorry," said Ellison and then reach out his hand introducing himself. "Ellison, James Ellison."

The woman shook his hand and then finally looked at him fully. "Madison, Calista Madison."

They both finally glanced at each other then back at the coffin listening to the Sermon speech was about to come to an end.

As the funeral was done, Ellison walked to his car fumbling around with his car keys to finally pick out the one of the ten keys on the ring that started his car. He told himself to get rid of the numerous keys on his key ring, but with his job he never had time to accomplish it. Getting to the front door, he placed his key into the key hole but paused watching a person in the distance. He saw Calista walking to a black Range Rover. She took out her keys and placed it into the key hole of her car. Ellison was debating with himself to ask her out for coffee. Knowing his luck with women, she would probably think the wrong idea of him, picking up dates at funerals. He defiantly didn't want to come off of being that weirdo to a woman he just met.

Then Ellison saw Calista glance into his direction, smiled kindly and went into her car. He watched her drive off down the swerving road that lead out of the cemetery. Turning the key to his car door, Ellison opened it and got into his car feeling disappointed with himself, as he should have asked her the question. He started up his car and drove off down the same swerving pathway.

* * *

Looking at her watch, Sarah knew it was almost time to pick up her son from school. Opening the truck door to her jeep Wrangler, she placed two bags in the trunk, coming from the hardware store running errands for her son. Though she doesn't understand what her son needed the tools for, still she hoped she had his list right this time and not wanting to take another trip. Last time, she brought him the wrong needle nose pliers; instead of red she gave him the blue ones. However, she blamed that on time lag, as her son would call it.

Walking to the driver door, Sarah heard her cell phone ring in her jacket pocket. She quickly pulled it out and answered it.

"Hello." Sarah said as she was looking around the area, always on alert if anything came flying towards her, being mostly bullets.

"Hey it's me," said John on the other end. "Did you get them?"

"Yes I have. I don't forget that much." Sarah smiled. She heard her son laugh on the other end. "So, how was the chemistry test you've been up all morning studying for? And yes I did notice."

"It was great. Passed with flying colors." John said.

"That bad, huh." Sarah knew her son was lying right away and thought it was kind of amusing hearing it.

"I think I did well." He said trying to sound as if he didn't completely fail the test.

"Look, with everything happening these pass weeks, I'll give you a free…tests failure grade pass this time around." Sarah sarcastically said to brighten her son's day. One test is not the end of the world, maybe for other academic families but not in her family. It would be too normal for them.

John chuckled. "Guess I need something crazy to happen to get more of those passes, huh."

"Pretty much. Anything beyond that I will grill you for it," She said in a humor tone. "Anyway, I will be there shortly to pick you up."

"Oh, can you…pick up something to eat on the way?" John asked trying not to insult his mother's cooking. .

Sarah smiled at that comment. "You really have a problem with my cocking don't you?"

"What, no! I'm hungry now." He jokily said trying to dodge the bullet of answering it truthfully.

"Fine," Sarah eyes look forward seeing a burger restaurant across the street from her. "See you in a little."

* * *

"Here you go ma'am that will be twenty-dollars." A cashier said to a customer.

The door swung open as Sarah entered in the restaurant. The bell on top of the door rattled, singling a new customer has entered which brought the attention to the cashier. Not trying to make a scene, Sarah kindly smiled at the curious customers that were watching her and then took an empty seat towards the back of the restaurant.

Being in old fashion restaurant, Sarah felt nostalgic, missing the smell of burgers and French fries and meeting all kinds of people from the many jobs she took as a waiter. Glancing to her left, a food menu was in between the ketchup and mustard bottle. She picked it up and opened it finding out what was good on the menu; hopefully she could grab something to eat herself as she didn't eat lunch.

Walking out of the cooking area making his way behind the bar, an overweight mid-forty year old cook caught the attention of Sarah eyes. The kitchen grease and mustard stain on his white apron that turned somehow beige on top, reminded her of Bill the cook in New Mexico before everything hit the fan. She missed Bill the more she kept staring at the man. He was always kind to her than the asshole who ran the place.

The cook glanced over at Sarah noticing she haven't been waited on and then at his employee sleeping at a table. He cursed to himself as she was embarrassing him in front of customers in the middle of the day. He thought her sleeping was becoming a problem as he told himself repeatedly in his mind to not lose control, but to set a good example for the younger generation.

"Seen." He called her a name in a normal tone voice to not cause attention.

"Seen." He called her name again as the volume of his voice went higher.

Sarah oddly looked at the direction where the cook's eyes were gazing at. She lifted her body up trying to look over the other chair in front of her seeing a girl asleep the next table from her. Her head was laid down as the cook words weren't even affecting her slumber. Sarah thought was it even possible to sleep at a job such as this. Her boss would have fired her on the spot. Time has change.

Sarah looked at the cook again as he kindly smiled at her putting up his index finger to give him a second.

"Seen, wake UP!" He shouted at her and threw a white rag at her table.

Before it could hit her, Seen quickly lifted her head up as the rag missed hitting her, sliding across the table. Her eyes were still closed as she yawned. On the table below her was a comic book of The Watchmen as she immediately closed it.

"Seen. Guest." The cook said pronouncing each word to signal her to wake up.

"I heard you the first time," said Seen as she finally opened her eyes towards the restaurant manager. "I thought you weren't talking to me specifically."

"Who names here is _Seen_ besides you?" The boss asked.

"Not everybody name is unique. Somebody is called the same name somewhere in the world." She replied.

"Whatever," said the boss, not interested in her statistic speeches today. "Young teenagers shouldn't sleep like you. It's unhealthy."

"So I've heard or read."

"Keep it up. Kids would kill to work here with what I am paying you. Stop playing around, we have customers…" He looked at Sarah and smiled. "Who we call guests in our restaurant."

Sarah smiled at his comment, actually enjoying herself of watching young waiters getting yelled at just like her when she was younger. Unfortunately, this girl was a first to ever behave like this in her waiter years.

The young girl was 5'5, had shoulder length light shaded brown hair, and was an average looker from all the other teenager girls she have seen walking down the streets of L.A. She noticed that none of the waiters had to wear typical uniforms as this girl had on blue jeans, black converse sneakers and black light sweater zipped up, under her burgundy apron where her order book and pen was placed.

Sarah thought this girl came off as a punk rock rebellious kid that just needed tough discipline to get her act together. She couldn't understand why her boss kept the lazy child around.

Seen finally got up and walked to the table his boss was previously watching before. However, her actions immediately paused, surprised as she quickly glanced at her boss and then at Sarah. This action caught Sarah off guard as if the girl knew her from somewhere. Maybe her internet fame running naked across the freeway may have caught the young girl's attention as she heard it was on the news from Cameron.

"Interesting," said Seen as she smiled at Sarah. She pulled out her order book and pen from the pocket of her apron, finally ready to do her job. "Can I take your order?"

Sarah stared at the girl for a few seconds wondering what the strange look was from before, but heard her stomach growl.

"Yes. Can I have two number two's and a number one for me. Also can I have the numbers two's to go?" Sarah said.

"Sure, no problem. And what is your drink ma'am?"

"Just water. Thank you."

"Okay," Seen took the menu from Sarah's hand. "Your order will be out shortly. Oh, sorry about the early entertainment from before."

"No…it's okay," said Sarah smiling at her. "Your boss seems nice."

Seen chuckled. "Yeah, sweet as a bear."

She winked at her and walked away as Sarah was amused by her comment.

Waiting for her food to arrive, Sarah saw the cashier having trouble working the register. He felt embarrassed in front of the customer as he tried to wiggle the drawer to open. His flushed red face and nervousness made Sarah laugh inside of why machines are not always the answer to solving every problem. They will eventually malfunction in the worst case scenario.

"Seen," said the boy as she walked behind him. "Please help me fix this."

"You try turning it on?" She asked as the screen was blank.

"Ha Ha," The boy knew she was being a smart ass. "It just cut off on me. I don't know why. It is up for a second then goes blank."

"Okay."

Seen turned the register around to have a better access of the panel that looked inside. A disgusted look came across her face and found out the reason why it was shutting off. Seen took out small screw driver in her back pocket and started to unscrew the tiny screws holding the panel in place. Her friend gave her a puzzled looked as girls don't carry screw drivers in there back pocket. Most girls carry lip gloss, comb or lotion, but not a screw driver.

Seen told another employee to bring her backpack as she took out a dust off-compressed Air Duster from it. As she started to spray inside the register, the customers in the restaurant were wondering what that noise was as they were looking at the two employees.

"What are you doing?" He asked but stepped back watching dust coming from the inside of the register.

"Cleaning the inside of the register," said Seen. "It's funny how you guys clean everything else but the technology that keeps your life easy by counting simple numbers for you. I'm not sure if you guys are aware, dust can destroy a register just like a computer. Over time it can damage the CPU and clog the fan that ventilates the heat from coming out of the register so it won't overheat, which is your problem now."

"Hmm…Why are you here?" The boy asked curious. "You should go to an ITT technology school or something. I've never seen a girl fix stuff like you…which is kind of freaky."

"Why and leave big boss a free paid vacation without me being here. That would be mean of me for not considering his feelings." She said chuckling.

"I heard that!" The boss yelled out in the back.

Seen finished and puts the register back together. She turned it on as it started to reboot itself. She smiled at her friend then quickly glanced at Sarah who was watching the entire incident. Escaping her gaze, Seen took a plate of food to another table.

* * *

Under a tree in the shade, John was laying on the grass relaxing. Eyes closed, trying to block out the problems in his life, he enjoyed the peace and quiet that he haven't had since they jump through time. He was still waiting for his mother to arrival and Cameron from her last class, which they didn't have together for once. This gave him time to relax his thoughts before they did arrive to order him around or ask a bunch of question how his day at school went.

Although, his relaxation was interrupted as he felt a presence above him. He figured it was Cameron being her creepy way to annoy him, and did not want to open his eyes until she told him his mother was here to pick them up. He had to give her credit. She did play the sister role much better then he expected. Knowing this fact, it would be scary for Derek and his mother if they paid close attention to it, although entertaining for him.

"Hey. What's your name?"

John pause his movement as the voice he heard didn't come from his cyborg protector, but another girl he wasn't familiar with. Slowly, he opened his eyes and then looked above him. A pretty girl with long blonde hair, grey eyes, wearing hipster clothing was gazing at him while he was still lying on the ground. John became nervous and then looked around to see if she was talking to somebody else besides him. Unfortunately, it was just him in the vicinity which meant she was directing her question towards him.

"Excuse me?" John asked after the long awkward pause between them.

"What's your name?" She asked him again.

"Why?" He asked as it was strange for a girl to just ask him that question, especially a pretty girl. Then again he remembered how Cameron and he meet as he hoped she wasn't another machine from the future.

The young girl smiled at him liking his nervousness around her. "I was talking with my friends…and then I saw you by yourself…I don't know…wanted to talk to you."

John finally stood up while grabbing his backpack from the ground and slung it over his shoulder.

"Do you do that all the time with guys you see on the streets?" He asked her as she thought her straight forward approach was creepy and dangerous for a girl in his book.

She chuckled knowing he was mocking her.

"No." She placed her hand out to introduce herself. "I'm Riley."

John stared at her hand not saying a word and then at her. Scenarios ran through his mind telling himself if he shook her hand that she would be involved into his world even though she was being kind. A world he didn't want anybody to suffer like him. He remembered his mother's words about making friends ever since he started school. She told him resist the urge to be seen important or special.

He stepped back and then looked behind her, relieved that his protector came just in the nick of time. Cameron was walking towards him as John knew his mother was waiting for them.

"I have to go." John said and quickly walked passed her still feeling nervous of that awkward moment between her.

Riley looked dumbfounded as her hand was still placed out.

"Nice to meet you Riley." She told herself of the words John was supposed to say to her. She turned around and watched him walk away with another girl as she wondered if she was his girlfriend. It would probably explain why he was nervous, she thought.

Watching John walk towards her, Cameron immediately recognize John's flushed face and then looked behind him of the girl he was talking too.

"Mom's here," said Cameron as John walked beside her not saying a word, but saw his eyes glance behind him as if somebody was following him. "Are you okay?"

"Why?" He asked and walked ahead of her. "I'm fine. Come on."

Cameron paused and stared at Riley suspiciously watching the unknown girl went back over to a group of students. She wondered if that girl said anything to upset him. Maybe she would ask John later just to make sure his life wasn't in danger.


	2. Visitors

**Chapter 2- Visitors **

Shifting through papers in his office, Ellison was investigating any leads on the false Agent Kester while searching through his mysterious files he have been gathering for the past months. Reading all the evidence in his files again, he picked up a picture of his escaped felony, John Doe, as he had a barcode tattooed on his right arm that he circled in red marker before. Ellison knew his John Doe was hiding information about his investigation. Remembering his last words 'They're all going to Die', Ellison fully understood the words he told him, witnessing the aftermath of the machine. He knew if he could find his John Doe then he could find the machine.

A soft knock on his door alerted Ellison as he glanced up. He gave a weary smile at his co-worker that stepped into his office.

"Hey Samson." Ellison said moving a few papers on his desk around.

"Ellison, the boss wants to see you in his office." He said.

"Good or bad?"

"It depends on what you mean good or bad." Samson smirked and left his office.

Puzzled, Ellison stood up from his chair thinking oddly about his friend's words. He put on his navy blue suit jacket and walked out of his office.

Making his way to his boss office, Ellison could feel the conversation that's about to erupt. He had a feeling he was either off the case or actually relieved from duty until otherwise from his boss. Whatever this meeting was, he had to persuade his boss to keep him on the case no matter what.

Stopping at the front of his boss door with a brass plate nailed to the oak door saying Jack Conley, Ellison took a deep breath and opened the door. His actions paused immediately as he saw another person in his office. It was a woman as she was not curious who stepped into the room still facing away from him. The back of her head looked familiar as Ellison gazed at her curious.

He cleared his throat. "Sorry, I didn't know you had somebody in here. I'll wait outside."

"Wait Ellison, come in." Conley said signaling to come into his office.

Feeling nervous as he started to fidget with his suit, waiting for the bomb to drop, he glanced at the woman next to him. His eyes widen, surprised and baffled. The woman finally looked into his direction as she kindly smiled.

"Ms. Madison." Ellison said bewildered, staring at the same woman he met earlier.

"Hello, Agent Ellison." Calista said not as surprised to see him again.

The boss starred at them awkward. "You two know each other?"

"No. We just meet." They quickly said in unison.

"While good…saves the weird feeling in the room," said Conley adjusting himself in his chair ready to explain why he called Ellison into his room. "Sorry Ellison, but I've decided I'm taking you off the case of the guy that killed our men."

"Wait what?!" Ellison knew this was the reason and his boss didn't even sugar coat it to not seem guilty about his decision.

"Sorry, but we will be placing Agent Madison in charge until you can get some rest. I know it have been rough for you these past days, so I'm giving you some time to become focus again. I want you to give all the information to Agent Madison at once. From what her record shows, solving cases such as this, this guy will be behind bars in no time." The boss explained.

"Look, I can get this guy and I don't need rest. The faster we jump on this, the faster we can catch the guy." Ellison pleaded; being off of this case was the last thing he needed.

"Oh so now it's a guy and…not a machine?" Conley remembered Ellison previous words which was outrageous in his book.

Ellison looked away from Conley glare knowing he was going to bring that up. However, he didn't want Madison to think he was a whack job; however his boss already just made that apparent.

"Wait, a machine?" Madison asked puzzled hoping she heard Conley words right.

"Yes, a machine," The boss quoted Ellison's exact words. "Agent Ellison thinks it was a machine sent from the future that killed our men."

"A machine sent from the future." Madison said and then glanced at Ellison bizarrely. She saw him ignoring her stare, looking in another direction feeling embarrassed.

She looked at Conley. "What do you think about the case, sir?"

"A guy with a bullet proof vest that is good at what he does," said Conley. "Maybe an ex-military not liking how the world works. Whatever, look…ten FBI agents with _families_ have numerous questions that want answers about there death. Saying they were killed by a machine from the future is an insult to there honor of serving years to this country. "

"Conley?" Ellison interrupted.

His boss placed his hand up to paused his words.

"Look Ellison…if you want to contribute to this case then do it," said Conley seriously. "However, you will be taking orders from Agent Madison now. She's the head Agent in charge of this investigation. I want answers quickly. If this guy jumps the border to Mexico, I want to have a dozen armed men waiting for him to take him into custody. Are we clear?"

Ellison exhaled forcing his rage back as his boss just appointed him a babysitter. "Yes sir."

"Dismissed." Conley said.

Ellison and Madison both walked out of his office and down a hallway. It was silence for a minute as none of them had anything to say at first. Although for Ellison, he was nervous, still in shock and embarrassed meeting Madison again, and on these terms.

"Not what our second meeting was pictured in my head was planned." Ellison said breaking the silence.

Madison smirked. "Don't worry…I'm not going to kill you."

They both chuckled.

"Look Ellison, I don't like to step over people shoes when it comes to cases such as these, and I also don't want you to feel in anyway that I will take you off of this case, regardless what the boss thinks of you."

"Thank you." Ellison said appreciated.

"To tell the truth, I want to hear everything you witness…even if it sounds outlandish," said Madison smiling at him sensing the nervousness from him still. "I've seen some weird things in my life, though this is a first, but I rather be prepared going into this case than not at all."

"Are you sure? You could end up like me around here jeopardizing your reputation. Also become one step closer in losing your job and sharing a patted cell with me." Ellison said being sarcastic and serious at the same time.

Madison smiled. "At least you'll keep me company."

They both smiled as Ellison thought she may not be bad to work with. He stopped at his office letting her go in first to start there investigation together.

* * *

Eating and enjoying the meal his mother brought for him at the table, John wondered could he convince his mother to buy this again.

Coming into the kitchen, he saw his mother roaming through the cabinets looking for something.

"This is pretty good." John said licking his fingers of the ketchup sauce seeping out of the jumbo size burger.

"I went to a new place over on George Street near the hardware store called Joe's House," said Sarah giving up on what she was looking for and glanced in her son's direction. "The people there are very…interesting."

Sarah comment pointed towards the interaction between the boss and the young waiter that amused her.

John didn't understand his mother's words, although saw her cheerful expression.

"Do you…you know…miss being a waiter?" John asked knowing his mother missed it from time to time. When he was young, he enjoyed hearing the stories she will tell him about her job. It was one of the normal conversations they had without involving his destiny.

Sarah hesitated at first. "Sometimes. I'll go back there if you want."

"How about tomorrow?" John asked avoiding his mother stare while smirking at the question.

"What's with my cooking?" Sarah smiled knowing her son was just being smart.

"I love you." John said smiling at her.

"Anyway," Sarah looked around the house curious. "Where's Tin Miss at? Normally she's looking through newspapers, watching the news or guarding the house looking out the window like a watch dog?"

John glanced at Cameron's bedroom door as it was closed which he thought was peculiar. Sarah followed her son's focus as this worried her.

"Is she okay?" Sarah asked her son in a low voice. "She's not acting unusual than before?"

"I think she's okay," John then acknowledged his mother's concern which made him force himself to say something else. He smiled at his mother to reassure her uneasiness. "Actually she's better then okay."

"Okay than." Sarah said and walked out of the kitchen.

John looked at his mother unsure then looked at Cameron's bedroom door. Worried, John himself was asking the same questions his mother was since she tried to kill him. He thought he fixed her chip, but since he didn't build her or fully understand the capacity of her chip functioning abilities, he had to go on assumption and hope that she was fine.

* * *

In her room in deep concentration, Cameron heard the entire conversation. She didn't feel affected by the unsure voice from both the Connors as her concerns was directed to something else.

In her hand was the San Diego article that caught her interest early in the morning as she clipped it out and placed it on her bed. Though she never slept in her bed, but it became quite useful for materials to be placed on it for her search. Newspapers, magazines and internet article clippings from different periods of the year, were spread out on her bed in chronologic order. She analyzed each article carefully, finally making a connection that she couldn't piece together before, until the San Diego mysterious killing.

On the wall in her room was an American map, as John thought it could help her on Intel gathering of finding the Turk. She walked over to it as her view mode placed red dots of the articles events in different places. She placed her finger on the city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska as her starting point and then slid it down towards San Diego. Her finger slowly moved up towards Los Angeles as she figured out the pattern to the articles events.

"You're here." She whispered.

Unnoticed, like a TV losing its picture, static started to plaque her view mode as her chip was malfunctioning again. Desperately trying to fix the glitch in her chip before it affected her entire body; Cameron wanted to take a step back but looked down as her left leg wasn't moving to her command. Unexpected, her left leg gave way. Before falling to the ground, she caught herself with her right hand bending down on her right knee. She glanced at the floor as her body was completely paralyzed.

Hidden behind her darken brown eyes, her true eye color magnum blue started to flicker repeatedly. She couldn't control it as whatever was affecting her processing chip was spreading across her body completely like a computer virus, as her view mode read power overload. As a precaution, her processing chip automatically does a complete shut down as her blue eyes stop flickering.

* * *

Placed on her bed dismantled of a 30SF mini-glock, Sarah was doing a weekly cleaning of her guns arsenal making sure they were good and ready when they needed to be. She never knew who would be knocking on her door, metal or law enforcements.

Seconds later, she heard sounds of heavy boots coming into the house followed by the closing of the front door. She dropped a white cloth she was using to clean the gun parts on the bed and walked out of her bedroom door. Knowing it was him by the heaviness of his boots, Sarah saw Derek at the kitchen placing a Canon EOS 40D Digital Camera on the table which cost them a pretty penny to acquire. However, to be a ghost in the shadows, it was a price they could afford.

"Did you get anything on the new CEO at Cyberdyne?" Sarah asked him.

"Not what I thought the person would be." Derek said as he picked up the camera and started to shift through the images he acquired.

Coming out of his room, John saw that his uncle was back from the task his mother had given him. It was something he was good at which was surveillance duty.

"Do we know if this person actually has the Turk, or a decoy and we're chasing our tails around?" John asked making sure this was the real deal of the games they played trying to find it.

Derek gave him the sim card. "Maybe you can pull up a bio from what I already know."

John took it and went into his room. He placed it into his Multi-Function External Card Reader next to his laptop as he pulled the images up on the card. Sarah was behind her son more eager to see the images on the card and figure out what they were dealing with. Surprised, both John and his mother looked at Derek.

"It's a woman." Sarah stated.

"Catherine Weaver and apparently a ball breaker as well," said Derek playing with the camera to adjust it back to its regular zoom. "Oh yeah, she's very rich from what I heard. I can see why Cyberdyne wants her. She can give them any amount of money to faster bring the world to an end."

Derek shook his head how money rules this world as it will become humans down fall in the end.

"When you guys blew up Cyberdyne the first time," Derek continued. "Cyberdyne have been desperate for money to be the leading corporation of the cutting edge of technology again."

"They might get there wish with this woman to jump start the corporation again. This is becoming more complicated by the day." Sarah said, thinking how eager man are to become rich in the world by selling there souls to the devil.

"I overheard one of the head boss in charge at a _fancy_ uptight restaurant, I followed them in," Derek looked at Sarah's confused stare. "Don't ask how I got in…but they were talking about how she raised to CEO position in just one month being with the corporation."

"She did employ Sarkissian, so she could have other henchman under her belt." John noted.

"Sound like were out matched." Sarah said realizing there little team was going to need more fire power to take on a person of this stature.

"What do we do?" John asked his mother.

"First, we need to know everything about Ms. Weaver. Who are her employees, friends, relatives, to Flight plan ticket, whatever. If she has a weakness I want to know. Surveillance is our top priority. We can't have another run in like Sarkissian again without knowing who this person is. We need to know how far there progressing with the Turk, that's even if it's really there." Sarah explained.

She glanced at Derek beside her. "Let's not try to kill anybody at Cyberdyne to allow them to become aware of our actions."

Derek blew off her comment by rolling his eyes. If it gets him what he needed then sacrifices must be made to save the world, he thought. Speaking of killing, his eyes searched around the room curious.

"Where's the machine?" He asked always making sure it was in his sight when around the house.

"Cameron," John corrected the word 'machine' and hated when he didn't call her by name. "She's in her room."

"She's been in there all day." Sarah replied uneasy as Cameron never did that before.

"Are you sure?" John asked thinking maybe his mother didn't notice or hear her as she had the tendency to sneak up on people unannounced.

"I'm pretty sure." She answered.

John saw the curious but alert expressions both his uncle and mother had. He cleared his throat to get there attention.

"The false Sarkissian hard drive have other employees, I'll look into them some more since I'm almost done decrypting the entire hard drive, and also maybe there whereabouts." John said changing the subject quick.

"Okay." Sarah said as Derek and she walked out of her son's room.

John felt relieved that it work or they would have been crucifying Cameron again, especially Derek. He couldn't stop saying that Terminators only bring death ever since Cameron was malfunctioning with her chip. However, humans can also do the same thing which is why there fixing there mistakes before Judgment Day happens.

Walking side by side, Derek looked directly towards Cameron's bedroom door and then touched the knob of his bedroom door.

"Keep a close eye on the machine," said Derek not even looking into Sarah direction. "If it goes on a rampage again, I'll put it down...permanently."

Derek opened his door, went inside his room and closed it behind him.

His last words sent chills down Sarah's back as he was sometimes hard to control. It was funny that he reminded her of Cameron, that killing instinct to kill anything to accomplish the mission, like he did with Andy Goode. He was unpredictable and becoming another one of her side jobs to keep in line. Sarah wondered how long could she keep her dysfunctional family together before they grow apart or end up killing each other.

* * *

A fifty-five year old gun clerk was reading the guns & ammo magazine of the new latest addition of accessories to be mounted to an M4A1, a standardized gun Black Ops use in combat. He smiled feeling like a kid seeing a shiny new toy for Christmas. He took a pen and marble notebook of what he wanted to add to his inventory next month which had a long list.

The door opened as he looked at a man entering his shop in a full black suit. The shop owner looked strangely at the man thinking he was a little over dressed from the costumers he usually saw entering his shop. He didn't put up any job hiring flyers; the owner wondered what this man wanted as he looked like a cop scoping the entire shop.

"Can I help you, sir?" The clerk asked politely, closing his inventory book and placing it under the counter.

"Yes, I would like to acquire specific guns that have come into your shipment, please." Comartie asked in his proper tone.

The clerk gave him a suspicious look. "Sure, I just need proper identification."

Comartie showed him his FBI badge as this surprised the clerk. Even though his FBI cover was blown, however Comarite knew it was still effective towards average civilians that granted him access into places that others couldn't go.

"Sure thing, sir," said the clerk straighten himself as this was extremely rare to have the FBI come into his shop.

"Is this an investigation…or simple pleasure?" The clerk gave him a smirk.

Comarite kept his straight face unsure what the smirk was for when he said simple pleasure, but decided to use it from his original fake story.

"No investigation just simple pleasure, sir."

The clerk chuckled. "You sure have the polite talk of the FBI. So what guns are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for Sabre Defence Precision Marksman Rifle, SIG 556, and M4A1 with a mounted M203 grenade launcher." Comartie asked looking behind the clerk of the bullet proof glass with special military weapons hung on the wall inside it.

The specific guns he was requesting surprised the clerk. "Those guns aren't cheap. You sure you want to buy them here and not ask from Uncle Sam?"

"Money is not a thing for me, can I see them please?"

A set of keys were attached to the belt ring on his pants by a clip as the shop owner unclipped it. He walked to the entrance door, placed his key inside the keyhole and locked it. The sign on the door which read open, the clerk turned it over as it said closed.

"Follow me." The clerk said.

The clerk guided Comartie in the back where he kept all of his heavy artillery and safe from robbers if need be.

"You come to the best place around for what you're asking," The Clerk continued. "Jack's Sporting Goods and Earl's Fly Gun stores don't even have these in stock unless you got connections."

They both went down a flight of stairs which lead into an open room basement. The clerk turned on a light as it looked like military stock supply room from the weapons that were mounted on each side of the walls.

"Pretty nice, huh," The Clerk smiled at him as Comartie still showed no emotion not understanding the man's excitement at all. To him it was weapons, tools used to complete his mission efficiently such as he was to Skynet.

The Clerk walked over to one of the mounted guns on the wall, took it off the hooks holding it up and placed it in his hands.

"The Sabre Defence Percisiom Marksman Rifle with the Leupold 6.5 20x50 mark 4 LR/T MI Illuminated Tactical Scope. Shoots thirty rounds in a magazine and sails beautiful through the air like a sparrow. A real baby, couldn't even get a hold of it when it came out last year and still can't, unless you're me. He He!"

The Clerk placed it into Comartie hands. Quickly, Comartie started to inspect the gun making sure it was up for the task for completing his mission.

The Clerk started to retrieve the other guns he requested and laid them down on a steel table in front of them waiting for him to inspect the other guns as well.

"Can I ask, why are you not getting all this through your Agency," asked the clerk watching Comartie take his time inspecting the SIG 556. "I know our tax dollars can surely supply you guys enough fire power to keep the country safe."

Comartie gave the Clerk an impassive look as his conversation was asking to many questions that he didn't like to answer. The Clerk put up his hands backing off; considering he knew how the FBI was secretive about there job.

"Okay…a secret, I get it," The Clerk smiled trying to lighten the mood. "Okay friend, with all these lovely weapons the price will be ten grand, including the bullets and added accessories which I'm going to gave you a discount. Somebody got to keep us safe."

Comartie put down the M4A1 on the table and looked directly at the man. He gave a half cocked smile.

"Thank you for your corporation." Comartie said politely.

He reached behind him and pulled out a 9mm with a silencer attached to it which surprised the clerk as his eyes widen in horror. Three shots were fired as the piercing bullets went directly into the man's chest like paper, killing him instantly.

Without showing any remorse from his actions, Comartie stepped over the clerk's body and went towards a caged locker. He noticed it was locked and ripped it opened using his superior strength. He pulled out a big black duffle bag and went back over to where his weapons were located. He dismantled them and placed them inside the bag.

He knew these weapons were sufficient enough to help him finish the mission, to hunt and kill the future leader of mankind, John Connor. However in order to find him he needed the Agent who was close in finding Sarah Conner. James Ellison.

* * *

Elevator doors slide open as a woman power walked off of it, speaking on her cell phone with a frustrated look on her face. The mid-thirty year old woman with reddish-orange hair and white suit outfit caught the attention of a young woman at an oval desk being the secretary of the CEO. Her frighten look of seeing this woman approaching towards her, the secretary stood up searching through folders of papers on her desk. She grabbed a sheet, walked around her desk and jogged towards her boss in an urgent manner.

"Hampering with the project will delay the efforts of making this company come back on its feet," said the woman irritated. "Forget about regulations! I thought I was paying you to control the law under your fingers like a puppet. Saddrick, there are other people who can give me faster results. If you can't produce them, just tell me right now."

The woman saw her secretary coming towards her in a hasten pace as she looked at her Rolex Datejust watch as her time wasn't her own anymore, which made her walk faster to her office to get the deals done before ten in the morning.

"Good Morning Ms. Weaver, I have your appointment sheets ready for you which have some small changes for today." The secretary said nervously. She always felt this way when her boss stepped into the building, hoping she wouldn't get fired since she already fired four secretaries so far in one month period of becoming the new CEO of Cyberdyne.

Weaver pause her movements and placed her hand up that made her secretary quickly stop talking.

"I don't care Saddrick." Weaver said not in the mood to argue with anybody this morning. However, she did catch the frighten looks her secretary was giving her as she glanced at her office doors.

"What's with your nervousness? It's distracting me." Weaver asked placing her hand over her phone.

"I really, really, really, _Really_ tried to call you Ms. Weaver but…Ms. Dealer is in your office waiting for you." The secretary said fretfully trying to calm her nerves. She didn't know which female was worse, her boss or the woman that was waiting for her boss. Even though her boss tried to conceal any human emotions from everybody to see, but she could sense Weaver's nervousness around this woman.

Weaver placed her phone down to her side and gave her secretary an irritated look. "Why didn't you call me? I told you if that woman calls or come to my office you were to call me immediately. Do you want to join the rest of the whinny secretaries I had before? I'm not paying you sixteen dollars an hour to look pretty."

"Yes you have many times, but, but, but I did call you several times already." She justified her efforts.

Weaver gave her a stern look. "You should have kept trying until your hands broke off. A warning Lisa."

Weaver snapped her fingers twice as Lisa gave her the appointment sheet. Lisa stepped aside letting her boss pass, wondering was the money worth the stress she's been under. It wasn't a full week since she started to job and she felt like she's been at Cyberdyne for twenty years.

Weaver brought the phone to ear again. "Saddrick, your service is no longer needed. My personal employees will visit you shortly for your money."

She flipped her phone and placed it in her small jacket pocket. She paused at her double doors and inhaled, still could smell the fresh wooded oak made from her doors. She placed her hand on the door as she had to swallow her emotions quickly or the person waiting for her will sense it, which she thought was disturbing. She opened her door and walked in.

Sitting in a smooth shaped mist white chair in front of Weaver's desk, Ms. Dealer was waiting for the new CEO to enter. She didn't look at her, as Ms. Dealer already acknowledge her presents. Her emerald eyes were focus in front, looking out from the large displayed windows which gave a fascinated view of Los Anglos.

Weaver stepped forward but was startled when she glanced to her right. A 6'5 Caucasian man resembling attributes of a body builder caught her attention. Standing straight, hands positioned behind him and black shades covering his eyes, her presence hardly intimidated him as his eyes were directed forward. His black suite, white shirt and tie reminded her of the men in black as he never change clothing each time she seen him, being Ms. Dealer's personal bodyguard.

"Ms. Dealer, I didn't even know you were coming today." Weaver said as she started to walk towards her desk but paused giving a smile to lighten the darken tension in the room every time she visited.

"Please Catherine…you know I hate when you feel nervous around me. Barrack makes everybody feel that way when they first glance at him. He's really a nice guy. Dedicated to his job in protecting me. He won't hurt you. Please, sit…you earned it." Ms. Dealer said kindly and pointed to her chair behind Weaver's desk.

"Thank you," said Weaver as she walked towards her chair behind her desk and settled herself down.

To her, Ms. Dealer was a hard ass and even worse boss then her from the off the papers employees she hires. Though beautiful in looks being the same age as her, the 5'6, brunet, could kill anybody that stood in her way. Ms. Dealer wanted perfection and the reason why Weaver admired her the most. Weaver deep down wanted to be her. Although she had wealth, however, she wanted the power to persuade anybody to her side like Ms. Dealer could do.

"With Cyberdyne, everything is going according to plan," said Weaver as she straighten in her chair. "With new technology we're introducing in all aspects of the modern age average citizens use everyday, will be on top in no time from there supply and demands. We're getting everything ready for the I.Q. party event in less then a month which will blow them away of what we have in store for them already."

Ms. Dealer smirked by her last comment. "Literally."

"Soon will have enough funding invested into the corporation that the Turk will flourish far beyond any A.I. platform that have ever and will be constructed in the future. However, we have to make sure outsiders, such as the law, won't interfere with our business. Saddrick can't perform his job anymore. I'd already terminated his contract with us." Weaver explained.

"Don't worry," said Ms. Dealer giving her a sly look. "I don't want you to worry about needless things. My associates will handle Saddrick. The law of this time is very stubborn. In any case…"

Ms. Dealer stood up and adjusted her navy blue business suit jacket, wearing long dress paints as she looked at the Cyberdyne CEO.

"I put my full trust in you to carry out the production of the Turk," Ms. Dealer continued. "Excuse me now, I have other matters to deal with."

The statue bodyguard became animated and went over to the door. He opened it waiting for his employer to exist.

"While everything is in motion, what will you be doing in the mean time." Weaver asked as Ms. Dealer only came to visit her when she wanted something. She probably already acquired it without her noticing, Weaver thought.

Ms. Dealer smirked feeling anxious of the new discovery she found. "Easy answer...Search for The Engineer."

She turned around and strolled out of her office followed by her bodyguard. Weaver gave her a curious look unsure what she meant. Cyberdyne had the best engineers around and wondered why she was looking for another one.


	3. Fallout

**Chapter 3- Fallout **

Pictures after pictures, John carefully looked at every one Derek had required on the camera's memory stick. Tapping on the keys on his on laptop, he used Sarkissian hard drive to match up any of the pictures from that data collected from the deceased man. Being up since five in the morning, he felt anxious from this task his mother had given him. He wasn't sure if it was the new vowel he took in trying to stop Skynet before his next birthday, or the fact he told himself that it maybe him in the end to stop it. Either way he wanted to end the running and gunning his life have always been, and live a normal life for once.

A light knock was heard as John looked to his left as his mother entered into the room. He gave her a light smile but directed his attention back to his laptop.

"Hey," said Sarah. "Breakfast is ready."

She heard no answer from her son, watching his full attention glued to his laptop screen. It made her curious as she walked over to him.

"What are you doing this early in the morning? School work?" Sarah asked hoping not to be to nosy in her son's personal life. Her son has a tendency to hid things from her when ever she asked too many personal questions. She knew it annoyed him sometimes but it was her way of keeping her son safe.

"Going over the pictures Derek took," said John clicking on a picture of a British old man. "I have noticed repeated people that the new CEO was associating with, but I'm not sure if the people she associates with are her friend, colleague or paid assassins."

Sarah was surprised that he was taking this task serious and in the early morning. If her son kept this up, maybe the answers she seeks will unfold quicker then usual. She rubbed her son's back, proud of his dedication to there goal. She slightly smiled towards him.

"When you get back, you can start where you left off," said Sarah not wanting to exhaust her son before school. "School starts soon, okay."

John saw his mother leave his side. "Sure, I'll be right out."

Sarah paused and turned around. "Oh, and bring Tin Miss while you're at it."

Curious, John looked at his mother. "She's not waiting like usual?"

"No." she answered which spark her suspicious about Cameron from before. A person can never be too careful around a machine that can lie easily such as her.

Her answer worried John as he saw the expression of his mother's face which made him quickly react.

He smiled. "I'll get her. She's probably putting on blush or something."

Sarah gave her son a slight smile and walked out of his room towards the kitchen.

Without wasting time, John closed his laptop and stood up from his chair, more concerned about Cameron then the others in his family. He walked out of his door and went towards Cameron's bedroom door. His heart started to race for unknown reason, wondering why he was feeling nervous that perhaps his mother was right, there's possibly something wrong with Cameron to be behaving like this.

John collected himself, trying to block out the possibility and knocked on Cameron's door.

"Cameron, come on school's about to start. You can only play hooky unless it's an emergency," said John chuckling of his comment, but made sure his voice wasn't loud for Derek and his mother to overhear.

However, there was no answer from her room which made him even more nervous then before. He knocked on her door again.

"Come on Cameron, you're starting to act like a girl taking twenty years to get ready for school." John said.

He hoped the Teen Magazines wasn't teaching his protector bad habits about being pretty every waken minute of her life. That would just run him up the wall like a normal brother wanting to kill there sister of beauty products all over the house.

Still frozen in the position from yesterday on her bedroom floor, the voice from John reactivated her entire systems. Though not hundred percent perfect as her view mode was still having problems of focus from the static, she pushed herself up to a standing position. She scanned the area realizing she was still in her room which meant nobody entered her room or the Connor's would have been asking numerous questions by now. Questions she would like to avoid from the time being before she could fully answer them herself.

"Cameron open up, this is not funny," said John still not hearing a response. He dug into his back pocket and took out his lock pick. He placed it into the key hole trying to open the door.

Before he could open the door, it opened as Cameron stood in front of him. John pulled back his lock pick seeing her give him her usual blank stare like a lifeless doll.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a low voice.

"Yes," said Cameron. "Why were you banging on my door? It's the afternoon. Do you need anything in particular that you need assistance with?"

John glanced at her oddly. "But it's 6:45 in the morning. Remember its Friday."

"Friday?"

Cameron titled her head confused. She zoomed in on the TV, having the news running as the news anchor said the time and date before announcing the weather. She quickly corrected the date and time in her view mode which have been malfunctioning along with her CPU chip controlling her entire body functions.

Cameron gave John a reassured smile. "I guess I'm picking up your bad habits of forgetting things."

She walked passed him and into the kitchen knowing Sarah would have breakfast waiting for them as usual before they go to school. Worried by her response and expression, which seemed more human like when he first met her, John knew something was wrong with his protector. The nervousness in his stomach and his mother's concern was coming true. He had to fix it before it became worse. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how to accomplish that as this moment.

He glanced into her room as newspaper clippings were spread out on her bed. If something was causing Cameron behavior to become irregular then it was a start.

Looking at Cameron one last time as she was in the kitchen, John went into her room. He quickly made his way to her bedroom noticing this was the first time he seen it messy with material on it. Unlike his room, Cameron's bedroom was always neat and perfect, as one would expect of not using the furniture in the room.

He picked up a newspaper clipping, recognizing it right away from the article he was looking at the other day. Knowing this and had a hunch then, it was evident that his protector was looking for something.

His body tense suddenly as a chill ran up his spine, sensing a presence behind him as he turned around quickly. Startled, at a lost of words as if seeing a ghost, he saw his protector standing behind him. What scared him almost half to death was the fact he didn't even hear her footsteps. She sometimes reminded him of a cat which was one trait he didn't like from her.

"Sarah is looking for you." Cameron said monotone not surprised to see John in her room unlike other girls that would scream at there brother catching them in this act.

Nervous, feeling awkward, John smirked at her. "Okay."

He placed the clipping on her bed and left out of her room using the same expression she gave him earlier. Although it was a warm temperature in the house he still felt a cold chill as he looked behind him, catching the eyes of his protector that resembled dolls eyes in which he thought were creepy.

In the kitchen, Sarah saw Derek place a 9mm gun behind his back and into his pants while fixing his jacket to make sure it was covered completely. This put Sarah on alert every time he put one of those in his hands. Constraint was something new she found out Derek doesn't know how to control, like an adolescent feeling trigger happy that they had a deadly weapon in there hand as if on top of the world.

"You're not planning on killing anybody are you?" Sarah asked just making sure they were on the same page of _no_ killing.

Derek picked up a fork and started to eat his scrambled eggs she made for them.

"If it gets what we need does it matter even though there the ones going to blow up the world in less then four years?" He asked in a leisurely manner as if not caring what the consequences were with a gun in his hand.

"We're not monsters or like them," said Sarah looking at Cameron out the corner of her eyes. "Being invisible helps keep us under the radar and out of police custody. No killing unless I say so."

Derek smirked forgetting that she wasn't like him or seen the horrors when he was a teenager just alone. He gave in to not cause anymore confrontation with her.

"Scouts honor." Derek responded.

Sarah slightly smiled. "I would believe that if you went to Boys Scouts."

"I have when I was young. It's kept me alive so far."

"Seriously?" She looked at him oddly in disbelief.

"On my honor I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout laws; to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. Boys Scouts of America." Derek recited as he smiled at her.

John sat down at the table and picked up his fork.

"I didn't know you were in the Boys Scouts. It's hard to imagine." John chuckled as well as his mother at the notion.

"My brother and I were in it when we were young. It actually does work out in the end. Builds character." Derek said and ate a piece of his toast.

"You know, it's good to follow more of it…about help other people at all times, even though they don't know they will blow up the world in less then four years. It's why we're here." Sarah told him.

Derek gave her a gesture as if saying fine and will obey her command for now.

* * *

The bell rings in the hallway as students scatter like mice to get to there next class. John rushed to his Math class as he had to make a second trip back to his locker of forgetting his homework. Last thing he needed was Mr. Booth causing a scene that he forgot it to the entire classroom. He was one of the teachers, John had to make sure everything was done for his class or he would put him on _there_ radar as his mother would say.

Walking into his classroom, he paused. His eyes widen, surprised of the girl he meant yesterday was in his classroom sitting two seats behind him in the next row. Was he really oblivious of his surrounding that he didn't notice her from before?

Riley glanced at him and smiled. She pointed out her hand as if assisting John to take his seat but amused by his shocked expression.

John gripped the strap to his book bag and went to his seat. He felt nervous as he peeked behind him seeing the smirk Riley was giving him then back in front trying not to be noticeable. He wondered what his problem was. She was just a girl, a weird girl that greets strangers on the streets without thinking of her safety.

"Why are you nervous?" a voice said.

Startled, John looked to his right to find Cameron sitting right next to him. Yet again her cat like silence surprised him again. How many times was she going to do that in one day?

"Huh?" John looked confused acting as if he didn't hear her words.

"Why are you nervous? You forget your homework?" Cameron asked.

"Ehh…no. It's nothing." John took a deep breath and then looked forward seeing Mr. Booth come into the class.

However, Cameron was watching the entire incident John stepped into the room and what affected him. She glanced to her left and saw the girl he was talking with yesterday. She forgot to ask him yesterday about her. This was a perfect time to ask before it turned into something serious.

Before she could ask her view mode started to become static. Every word the teacher was saying started to become gibberish as if a person was trying to find a radio station on an old radio. She looked in front knowing her CPU was affecting her abilities to control her body functions again. An emergency error appeared, critical system overheating. Cameron didn't panic and transferred one bar to another, like a generator sharing power with another, to supplement her power supply.

Curious, Riley was watching Cameron the entire time realizing her eyes wasn't blanking at all for over a minute. She looked at John to see if he noticed but his attention was on the teacher. Then she saw Cameron body become animated again as she opened her notebook and started to write.

As math class was done, John and Cameron were walking in the hallway together. Cameron went to her locker and took out her brown lunch bag to eat as John gave a yak look wanting to eat real food today for lunch.

"That girl in class, Riley," said Cameron as this gained John's attention of how she knew her name. Cameron closed her locker. "She was staring at you a lot during class today. Did she offend you in some way? I can take care of her."

"No," John muttered quickly. "I just met her yesterday."

John looked around making sure she wasn't following him as they were walking down the hallway again to the cafeteria.

Cameron heard the bell as lunch period started. "You should make a story up or she'll become curious. Girl's don't like to be ignored."

John smirked. "How would you know?"

"I read it in Teen Magazine, if a guy ignores a girl, if they weren't in a relationship before, then the girl will become intrigued by the boy's shyness towards her." Cameron explained reciting every word the dating page said.

"That magazine said all that?" John asked as this was amusing to him and he didn't feel nervous around Cameron like before.

"Yes, I can lend it to you when we get home."

"No thanks." John chuckled. "Last thing I needed is my mom walking into my room reading Teen magazine. I get enough questions from her already."

"Hey Cameron!"

Both John and Cameron looked to there right seeing Morris walking over to them from a different hallway. Morris had a huge smile on his face staring at Cameron as if she was a movie star. John saw this and laughed inside thinking this guys was lost if he only knew what Cameron really was. He glanced at his protector's blank expression which made him laugh even more as she didn't understand how much Morris liked her.

"Hey John," said Morris as they started to walk again. "You guys going to lunch?"

John looked down at his pathetic brown bag then back at Morris disappointed. "I guess."

"Good, I want to talk to Cameron about something." Morris said still smiling like a little school boy.

They walked to a table outside as Morris sat next to Cameron. John looked at his brown bag and finally gave into his apatite.

"I'm going to eat cafeteria food. I'll be back." John said and walked off back into the school building.

Cameron watched John leave while scanning the area to make sure he was safe.

"Okay. About prom..." said Morris as Cameron looked at him. "Which is in two months, were you kidding about that?"

"Kidding?" Cameron repeated.

"Yeah, I just wanted to know before I pick out my tuxes and everything."

Cameron gave him a blank stare which put Morris on edge sometimes.

"Yes." She responded.

"Yes," Morris looked confused. "Yes you were playing around about prom?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?" Morris was puzzled at what was the real answer.

"Yes I will go to the prom with you." Cameron said remembering what John told her to say of not understanding the event.

Morris eyes brighten and smiled crazy. "Alright then. Would it be okay to bring you to meet my mother? She really wants to see you."

Cameron stared at him with nothing to say at this moment. She wasn't sure if this was required for this special event that John never mentioned it to her.

Moving in the line for food, holding a tray of food in his hand, John was figuring out what was good on the menu. He saw taco bell, pizza, burger, hot pockets and chicken wings. He took a pizza and four piece chicken wings, placing it on his tray. He took a bottled Pepsi from the small little refrigerator and continued around the lunch line making his way to the check out line.

"So we meet again, Mr. Baum."

John heard a familiar voice and turned around. Surprised, he saw Riley right behind him as John again didn't notice her. He told himself he needed to learn to pay attention to his surroundings better.

"How you know my name?" John asked.

"For the first time, I paid attention during role call in math class today." Riley smiled at him.

"Oh." John felt nervous as his eyes diverted forward wondering why the line was moving slow. Any other time kids would be zooming out of the line.

Riley noticed John's shyness around her. "What's your story John?"

John froze. "Ehh…story?"

"Yeah," she glanced at his cuts on his face. "You get beat up by the bullies in school or something? Or you made your girlfriend mad at you which could explain why you're nervous all the time."

John knew what she was addressing from his appearance but needed a lie quick like Cameron said. "No girlfriend and I didn't get beat up."

Actually he did from his sister but that wasn't one of the conclusions she came up with, John thought.

"I was playing football with my friends and it got a little out of hand." John said knowing football was his least favorite sport.

"Guys and football…enough said," said Riley and then looked around curious. "Where's your sister at? Cameron right? She's normally with you."

John looked at her wondering how she knew about her which alerted Riley's attention.

She smiled. "I told you, I paid attention in class."

"She's eating lunch."

"Can I join you?" asked Riley feeling nervous asking the question already knowing he thought she was weird. "My friends actually went out to McDonalds to eat and my mother gave me only a little bit of money today for lunch."

She looked down her plate having hamburger, corn and mash potatoes.

"No wonder teenagers are emotionally depressed during classes," said Riley. "Look at my poor hamburger and this is on a good day. I'm afraid to see it on a bad day, probably explode in my face when I eat it or something."

They both glanced at a pot of gravy that she wanted with her mash potatoes. However, it resembled more of a tar pit as it looked inedible to the teenagers' eyes.

"I don't even want to know what's in there." Riley said thinking she will do without the gravy today.

John smirked at her comment.

"I need to really get a job."

"You and me both." John said as she smiled at him feeling him loosen up to her.

They both paid for there food and started to walk back to the lunch table where Cameron and Morris was sitting.

"Sorry about yesterday." Riley said.

"Why?"

"If I scared you," She chuckled. "I'm not a weirdo that talks to guys on the streets if you got that impression about me."

John smirked. "It's really okay."

She kindly smiled at him. "What football team do you like anyway? I heard guys just beat each other up if you're rooting for the wrong team."

Riley glanced at the cut marks on his face. "I hope that didn't happen to you."

John gritted his teeth as he wasn't into football but had to improvise since he lied about it to begin with.

"The Seahawks." John made it up real fast.

"Seattle Seahawks, not bad."

"You have a football team you like?" John asked since they were on the subject and to make conversation.

"Philadelphia Eagles," she told him. "They haven't won a ring yet but this is there year, but then again I say that every year. I have a gamble with guys this year, they'll win all the way."

"How much?" John asked curious.

"Three hundred dollars."

"Wow."

"Yes, I know which is why I'm stuck with cafeteria food until Christmas time." She smiled at John.

Cameron heard John voice in the distance and looked up. He was smiling and laughing while talking to the girl he thought was spying on him. She thought she told John to make up lie not become friends with her. She wondered was this a good or bad idea in her book. Making friends, they ask weird questions and act funny which can become complicated when one have to lie to not tell the truth, like Morris, Cameron thought. Unlike John, who thought using Morris to get Cromarite from not blowing a hole in his head, Cameron thought Morris was useful to her. Lying keeps them alive and off the grid, something she thought John still needed to learn.

"So will you come?"

Cameron turned around hearing Morris voice as he was still asking to meet his mother. However, she needed to say something or he wouldn't stop bugging her about the question which could lead to blowing her cover.

"Yes." Cameron flat out said like before. "You have to ask John."

"Yes, Yes. Cool no problem. Don't worry my mom is really cool, she'll like you." Morris felt excited and drink his Capri Sun juice. He placed it back on the table. Then he saw John walking with a girl beside him which caught his interest.

"I didn't know your brother knew Riley." Morris said.

"He doesn't." Cameron said as they come to the table.

"Hey guys, this is Riley. She's going to eat with us." John said introducing her to the gang.

"Hey Morris." Riley said already knowing the goofy kid in her classes with him.

"You guys know each other?" John asked.

"Yeah, we have Art and Home Economics classes together." Riley said and sat down at the table followed by John.

John smirked. "Home Economics?"

"Morris almost burnt down the school last year and this year." Riley smiled at him. "I never forget Mrs. Smith's reaction to the whole ordeal. She looked like a chicken with her head cut off putting out the small fire that wasn't that serious."

"Why take the class if you suck at it ever year?" John asked Morris.

"Easy Bro, free food. I never turn it down." Morris said of actually having cooking class today which he was ready for his second lunch.

Keeping quiet the entire time and the only one suspicious of the new girl in front of her, Cameron eyes was solely on Riley and nobody else. Something about her she didn't trust as she knew the looks she was giving John was more then just wanting to become a new friend.

Catching her stare, Riley notice Cameron was looking at her the entire time since she sat down. She glanced at John and Morris as they were oblivious to the awkwardness at the table but Riley always knew Cameron was not like a normal girl. Her behavior seemed different from most girls she encountered with and it disturbed her.

"Hi." Riley said almost in a whisper but quickly looked away from her eerie stare.

John finally sees the uneasiness from Riley and Cameron looking at her like a piece of meat. He cleared his throat which got Cameron's attention to look at him.

"So…Cameron…"

"Oh yeah Cameron agreed to meet my mom." Morris interrupted John smiling crazy again. "Would it be okay this week? She told me to ask you John."

However, that same excitement didn't flow with John as he looked at Morris serious; almost in shocked that Cameron would agree with something like that. The speech she told him to make up a lie she didn't even follow her own words in which John thought she was a pro at lying.

"Wait a minute. What?" John said astonished.

"I just said yes." Cameron said repeating what John told her when they were being followed on there school trip a few weeks ago.

"Morris mom is a sweetheart, you'll like her." Riley said meeting his mother already when she picked him up from school.

"Wait a minute. What?" John gave Cameron a serious look, still baffled about the news Morris told him. He had to quickly figure something out or his mother was going to blow a gasket.


	4. Collapse

**Chapter 4- Collapse **

Cravying her son's hunger since he doesn't appreciate her cooking, Sarah was standing near the register at Joe's House restaurant. Her eyes were lingering around the area admiring the different celebrities that have eaten at the diner. Who would have thought Elton John, Madonna, and that crazy face painted KISS band came to a place such as this, Sarah thought. She chuckled thinking Joe's House been around for a long time in which she did miss working in places such as these with history behind it.

Thinking through all of this, Sarah actually realized something was out of place since her last visit.

"It's kind of quiet." Sarah said to the cashier.

The cashier saw his big boss step out of the kitchen area, with an irritated and fuming look as he knew his boss finally found out.

"Not for long." The cashier said.

The Boss walked over to the register. "Where's Seen, Jeffery?! I sent her to deliver food and that was an hour ago. The delivery is only in a three block radius!"

"Maybe she got lost. She is new around here." Jeffery said laughing on the inside as he knew where she was.

"Don't get cute," said the boss knowing he was being a smartass. "Call her and find out where she is."

"Yes sir, Mr. Sullen." Jeffery said watching his boss walk back towards the kitchen. He gave Sarah her food inside a brown bag.

Sarah took it and smiled. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Thank you."

Making her way outside the restaurant chuckling to herself; Sarah went to her jeep and put the food inside. She closed her door, ready to approach the driver's side but stopped her movements, glancing into the distance.

Sitting on a crate on the ground next to a small newsstand, Sarah saw the missing waiter in action reading a magazine.

Contemplating on ignoring the situation, waiter to waiter, Sarah finally broke down to give the young child a heads up before entering her job from her angry boss. She figured this girl needed all the help she could get, having no clue what punctual means.

After fiddling with her keys for a minute, Sarah looked both ways down the street and safely walked across towards the newsstand.

Into her comic book, of the latest adventures of Batman, Seen felt a shadow hovering over her as the person half block out the sun from her eyes. She actually wished the person was a little taller to fully block the sun to finish on her reading.

"Interesting."

That voice and using the same word she used, Seen looked up seeing her customer she saw yesterday. She stared at her, puzzled, wondering why her customer was talking to her out of the blue.

The atmosphere felt awkward as Sarah exhaled doubting herself what she was doing. Why did she care if this girl got into trouble? Her good side always got the better of her of doing needless things.

"Okay," said Sarah trying to play it off. "I just wanted to give you a heads up…your boss is looking for you. He seems really angry."

"Two number two's and a number one with water." Seen said.

Sarah looked at her oddly not understanding her words. "Excuse me."

"The order the customer or '_guest'_ ask, is the name I give them until they give me there's. It helps me remember." Seen said giving her a half smile.

Sarah thought about her weird method as it was efficient. The girl had some good memory skills to remember every guest she had.

"Okay," Sarah smiled. "While I just wanted to come over to say your boss is looking for you."

"You think I should get back?" Seen asked squinting one eye of the unblocked sun irritating her eyesight.

"You're asking me should you get back to work?" Sarah asked the bizarre question. "Then…yes you should."

"Okay." Seen said in a loaf manner.

She started to put the comic book in her backpack as she dug in her pocket and gave the newsstand owner money for the book she was looking at. She gave Sarah a smile and walked across the street towards Joe's House restaurant.

Sarah looked at the teenage girl curious, questioning why she always met the weird people out of civilization. Technically she shouldn't talk in her current situation. She believes in machines and actually time jump through time. In other people opinions, she should be in a mental institution at this point, again.

* * *

Searching through the documents she required from Agent Ellison, Madison saw a few clues that stood out from her investigation. Looking at the bank robbery picture of the Connors that happened in 1999, the bizarre event made her think of another event she remembered that happened a few weeks ago.

Footsteps caught her attention walking outside her office. "Agent Stewart."

The young Agent stopped his pace and looked at the woman calling him. He saw her smile at him.

"Please come in, I have something to ask from you." She said.

"Sure." Stewart walked into her office standing in front of her desk, taking a liking to the new Agent in the building. "What can I help you with?"

"Can you pull up the unexplained killing in San Diego from two weeks ago from the database?"

"No problem. Thinking it has something to do with this case?" Stewart asked.

"It may or may not. I want to catch this guy…and any little information to help find him." Madison said seriously.

"I'll get right on it." Stewart said feeling the same way about his FBI friends being killed without justice. He walked out of her office passing by Ellison on his way out.

Ellison knocked on the door making his presence known.

"I heard a possible lead." He said overhearing a last few seconds of the conversation.

"I've been thinking," said Madison. "In a nine month time period a group of my team and a division from the CIA have been investigating unsolved murders that have been happening around the world lately, Hong Kong, Germany, South Africa, Russia, in the United States, but mainly around the west coast.

"Murders?" Ellison looked at her curious and then sat down in a chair in front of her desk already pulled into her story.

"There not just any run of the mill murders off the streets, but crime bosses, politicians, big corporation executives to CEOs at high tech in advance technology industries. To add to the mix, some of the men and women that was found killed, could not be Identified as we're thinking they were hired assassins."

"How come I never read about this?" Ellison asked puzzled.

"They have been in the news and some were kept in secret for political reasons," said Madison. "The CIA couldn't understand it themselves as there were no real leads, surveillance, or finger prints…not the ones that matched any of our files that were at the murders. My team started to investigate in the Underground Connection as they knew things before we did. When we asked questions to the book keepers that owed us favors from there past crimes, they were scared to talk about a few of the incidents, saying the person from rumors was a _ghost_ or _death_ itself."

Ellison chuckled a little. "A ghost?"

"Well, it's as if this ghost is controlling the Underground Connection, which makes this person more dangerous, a person we want captured. This person could be a problem in the future in endangering our national security. It's the reason why I'm here James."

Ellison looked at her intrigued, wondering why she did volunteer to work on his case. He just got his answer as his small mysterious case was much bigger than he imagined.

"When I read about your synthetic blood samples you've been finding at the murder cases you've been investigating, some where found at fifty percent of these unexplained murders in our cases we had."

Ellison eyes widen surprised and baffled. "I never heard of at least somebody was on the same case as me."

"Where FBI, Ellison. We keep everything a secret." Madison said sarcastically as her partner knew she had a point.

This new information boggled his mind that there could be other machines in the world then Kester. Ellison heart started to beat faster wondering how many machines are in the past that Skynet sent back. This was becoming a big problem not understanding Skynet's true motive, which made no sense to him at this point. He knew eradicating the human race was its main objective, but why eliminate random people. Would they have been a threat for there future plans?

"So what does it all mean? What is the objective out of brining fear to all of these big crime bosses and CEO's in different parts of the world?" Ellison asked wanting to know what Madison thought of the whole ordeal.

"You just said one of three words. Fear, power and money. You have all three of those you can bring a country to its knees." Madison explained.

She gets up from her seat and walked over to her coat rank where her grey business jacket was hung.

"You coming?"

Ellison looked at her oddly. "Where?"

"Taking a road trip." Madison said.

Agent Stewart walked into her office having a paper in his hand. "The information you asked."

"Thank you." Madison said as he walked out of her office. She held up the paper to Ellison as she didn't answer his question fully.

"We're taking a road trip to San Diego." Madison explained.

* * *

Digging in her bag for a pen as she made her way into English class, Cameron looked up and stopped in the doorway of the room. Not in his normal seat, she saw John speaking to his new friend. Right away, Cameron wasn't sure if John should be interacting with that girl. She could become a liability as this interaction was different from the other girl he use to talk too before she moved.

With Cheri she was just a classmate just like Morris. However, Cameron never seen John express certain emotions such as what she was witnessing right now. Happiness and laughter, emotions that she seen John express with his family.

Static started to plaque her view mode. Quickly before the process started to spread, Cameron forced her processing chip to override the error that popped up on her screen. Her forced override returned her screen to normal again. The glitch in her system was becoming a problem everyday she kept forcing her input functions to override another function from what it's normally suppose to do. If she kept this up her system will automatically shut down on her permanently.

Riley looked in the distance catching the stare John's sister was giving her which put her on edge. It was creepy as it sent chills up her spine. It wasn't a normal stare that she seen from other girls that disliked her. Her stare was impassive and blank like a Mine you would see on the boardwalk.

The English teacher walked in the room as this caught the attention from the students as they scatter to their seats. Riley looked at the teacher then back at Cameron who was sitting down in her chair taking out her textbooks as if nothing happened just a few second ago.

John sat down next to Cameron taking out his notebook for class. However, he caught the gaze his protector was staring at, on the other side of the classroom. He followed her eyes as he saw it lead to Riley, as his new friend was digging in her bag missing the silent threaten glare from his protector. John looked back at Cameron as thoughts ran through his mind hoping she wasn't getting the impression like she did with Charley at the old house they use to live in before it burned down.

"Are you okay?" John asked snapping Cameron out of her stare and directed it towards him.

"You shouldn't get involved with Riley," said Cameron in a low voice as the teacher was taking attendance. "Your mother told you to be invisible."

"What?" said John feeling offended which put him on the fence. "She's not a threat to me, okay. I can have a life to, a normal life like normal people."

"But you're not normal people," said Cameron monotone. "You should get rid of her before she ask to many questions. She'll end up becoming a liability to your safety."

John looked around the room making sure nobody was hearing there heated conversation. He glanced back at his fake sister hoping she understood him perfectly clear on what he was about to tell her.

"Look, she not a liability and I'm not the one to talk. You're going to meet Morris's mom." John stated.

"I just followed your example. I just said yes." Cameron said.

"Yeah and now I have to make something up so you can't make it. If my mother find out she's going to flip." John said shaking his head in disapproval. Taking care of Cameron at school was becoming a problem for him.

"She'll do the same with Riley." Cameron commented with her answer being the same circumstances.

"She have nothing to do…"

Becoming static, Cameron eyes focused forward but her view mode was going haywire again. She tried not to cause attention to herself, finding it difficult to gain control over her functions again. This time her processing chip wasn't responding fast enough as her body stiffen like molding clay.

John's conversation goes blank as Cameron heard dead silence. The teacher lips she was focused on were moving but she couldn't hear the lecture he was giving the class. This started to panic Cameron as she looked at John worried.

Immediately, John stopped talking as he saw the strange look on Cameron's face as if she was afraid. This alerted him quickly as something was wrong with his protector. Cameron never showed fear as his mother was right about Cameron malfunctioning again, his worst fear was coming true and it had to happen in school.

John looked around the classroom, hoping nobody was witnessing what was happening. Everybody was listening to the teacher which gave him the break to figure out what to do before somebody ask Cameron about her condition. John cursed to himself figuring out a way to quickly leave class before the worse happened. He looked back at Cameron as her left hand was shaking while her eyes were focused on her desk.

Unlike the others watching the teacher, baffled, Riley was staring at Cameron odd behavior. She watched John look around the room in a panic as she knew this wasn't normal behavior from his sister.

Finally, before anything happens to bring attention to them, John stood up from his chair.

"Could I go to the nurse office?" John said stopping the teacher's lecture as the students in the class started to look at him.

"Why, feeling sick today Mr. Baum?" The teacher asked.

"No, my sister has a medical history and forgot to take her pills which are at the nurse office." John said lying through his teeth.

The English teacher looked at him strangely as he glanced at his sister. "She looks fine to me."

Confused, John wondered was the teacher blind to not see the consistent shaking his sister had.

John eyes directed to his protector but paused, dumbstruck. Cameron was digging into her bag and then pulled out a pen in which she was looking for before the class started. She raised her head and looked at John. She gave him a smile as if everything was fine. John wasn't sure what was happening to Cameron but had to get her out of the classroom to make sure she was fine.

"Fine Mr. Baum. Take your sister to the nurse, however be quick about it or you'll miss the quiz," said the teacher as he took a book on his desk and started to flip the pages. "Okay class lets open our book to chapter four."

John quickly gathered his belonging while the students were occupied.

"Come on Cameron let's go." John said in a low voice grabbing her things and forcing her to come.

Cameron gave him a confused look. "What's the matter?'

"Your pills remember." John gave her a look to not cause a scene and follow him.

Cameron titled her head and then looked at the students as some of them were looking at them. She followed John as they stepped out of the classroom.

Walking at a fast pace down the hallway, John looked around hoping other students was in the school just incase something might happen. He didn't feel in the mood to make up another lie.

"Why didn't you tell me something was wrong with you? Are cover could have been blown." John said worried and furious at the same time that Cameron would keep this from him. This wasn't a time to play the secret game, not after she tried to kill him.

Cameron stopped walking that paused John's brisk pace. "But there's nothing wrong with me."

"What, are you kidding me. Yes it is." John took out his cell phone to call his mother to pick them up fast.

"No it's not." Cameron tried to over state the matter because it was something John and the others couldn't fix.

"There's nothing wrong with me." She said in a whisper acknowledging the problem and even she couldn't fix it herself.

John saw the concern on Cameron's face as she took a step away from him. But her legs buckled as she fell to the floor creating a loud noise hitting the floor. John eyes widen in fear.

"Cameron!" John went to her side in distress. He turned her around as her eyes were wide open but she wasn't moving at all. He touched her cheek trying to get a reaction, but it wasn't any use. She was completely offline.

John looked around frantically and then dialed numbers on his phone quickly.

"Mom! Get here now!" John shouted in a panic voice.

* * *

Pulling up to the curb like a drunk driver, Sarah came out of the jeep looking around the school grounds making sure nobody was going to see there actions. She didn't want to cause a scene to involve the guards that patrolled the school.

She ran to a back door as John already opened it. Already being debriefed on the situation over the phone, it was no time to ask her son the million question game of what actually happened. While she grabbed the top half of Cameron's body as John held onto the bottom, they carried Cameron out the door and quickly getting her to the jeep.

Sarah looked to her left seeing a male student stunned of what they were doing which seemed like they were kidnapping a student.

"This is why you don't drink in school." Sarah said going pass the boy.

Both the Connors put Cameron into the jeep and drove off quickly.

* * *

Entering there home, the Connors brought Cameron into John's room and laid her onto his bed carefully. Sarah looked at her son in panic as if it wasn't one thing it was another with his protector.

"You can fix her right?" Sarah asked.

John carefully looked over Cameron assessing the damage as it was her chip. It had to be as the metal that struck her head in the explosion did more damage then he thought.

"I don't really know. I don't know why she shut off." John said as he started to open his laptop preparing his hardware, ready to try to repair her chip. The first time her chip malfunction, his protector did most of the effort to repair herself fully. He only assisted by cleaning off her chip which was minor. He never worked on her chip from scratch.

"You think it's her chip?" Sarah asked watching her son frantically moving things around his room to prepare to extract her chip.

"It has to be. She didn't suffer from injuries this time. If I plug in her chip then I can figure out how to fix her." John explained.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Sarah asked not reassured by her son's words, marching into unknown territory, it was a place she didn't want to adventure in.

"Ehh…No. Will see." John said and then looked at his protector, concerned that he may lose her if he's unsuccessful.

* * *

Observing the outer perimeter of Cyberdyne, a few security guards were patrolling the area. Derek commented to himself that it resembled a fortress as he positioned his camera and took a picture of each guard on duty. He saw two guards in the distance change shifts as Derek glanced down at his watch keeping track of the guard shifts.

A door swing open which caught Derek's attention, as a guy dressed in a green jumpsuit like a janitor, had trash bags in his hands. He went to the dumpster and threw trash inside. Derek took a picture of the man as he went back inside the building. He placed his camera down fixing the zoom scoop to place it back in focus.

"What are you doing here?"

Derek paused as his body stiffened. Startled, Derek slowly turned around seeing a guard behind me glaring at him suspiciously. Two scenarios went through his mind. One was to kill the guard and hide his body somewhere in the desert. The other was to make up a story and pray that the guard was dumb as an acorn.

"You scared me," said Derek in an upper tone than normal as he smiled at the guard. "I'm taking pictures of the landscaping. I work for a landscaping company. Whoever did this, it's beautiful."

The guard kept his eyes closely on the intruder but loosen up.

"What company do you work for?" The guard asked.

"Lawrence Gardening located around Scrabble street in Carter Oak county," said Derek toying with his camera and then slung it over his shoulder playing his part. "Where small now but we plan on growing. I get crazy ideas of fixing lawns, like art. Want to take a look at some of the pictures I got. People I think sometimes don't appreciate the art behind landscaping these days. You'll miss it when it's all gone."

"That's okay," said the guard feeling that Derek wasn't a threat. "My wife may look into it though, she a gardener herself. You have card or something?"

"Sure, sure," Derek dug in his pocket and pulled out a card. "Here you go."

The guard took the card having the information of the company on it. "Thanks. What's your name? I'm sorry I didn't catch it earlier."

"Tim Donaldson," said Derek. "Need any jobs, come to me."

"Will do." The guard said as he saw Derek leave the premises.

Derek glanced at the back door where the janitor went in before and walked across the street thinking of a mission to accomplish there goal in destroying the Turk.

* * *

Fully functioning as everything was in place, nervous; John took out a box cutter and looked at Cameron. Watching her lifeless body, John wasn't expecting to do this again. It made it harder to accept the fact she wasn't real, just a machine.

He took a deep breath and then touched her head ready to make the incision.

Walking back and fourth slowly on edge, Sarah wanted to know if this was a good idea. Anything could happen once her son place her chip into the computer. Derek words always were looming in her mind of her becoming Skynet. It was possible as she had all the characteristics and then some.

John placed the blade in his protector brunette hair ready to start the procedure, but flinched when an arm grabbed his wrist tightly. Surprised, as if seeing the dead come back to life, both Connors were shocked from what they were seeing.

"Cameron! Cameron, are you okay?!" John asked worried.

"J…John…" Cameron's voice stuttered, barely saying his name as her systems was failing which were affecting her vocal functions. Her body was still stiff as her chestnut eyes stared forward as if not acknowledging him next to her.

"Tell me what's wrong so I can fix you?" John asked desperate. He didn't want her to disappear like she told him before when she tried to kill him.

"You can't…only…the Engineer can."

"The Engineer?" John looked at Cameron confused and puzzled by her words as was his mother.

"Do you mean the Engineer that built the bank volt?" John asked as that was the only time she mentioned any engineer that his future self sent back in time.

"F-Find…the…Engineer before they do?"

"Who's they, Skynet?" Sarah asked trying to piece together Cameron's words.

"Find the Engine…."

Cameron eyes started to flicker blue repeatedly. A few seconds passed as her systems were completely shut down.

A nervous rack, John placed her arm down on his bed as things were falling apart in his life again. He had no clue what she was talking about as he felt like this was the last conversation he was going to have with his protector and only true friend he ever had that wasn't dead.

"Her power supply must have stopped," said John as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Who's the Engineer I sent back?"

"I wish she would have said he or she or something," said Sarah frustrated with Cameron in knowing this information. "Why didn't she tell us this before that future John sent back an Engineer in this time? This is just like she doesn't tell us many things until a direct question is asked. I'm going to assume _they_ mean Skynet. What other person or thing could be after us."

Sarah did not feel the same sympathy as John but annoyed with his protector. Cameron's last words made no true sense to her as she had a feeling there clock was winding down in finding the Engineer.

John looked at his protector with an idea.

"Her chip holds information on every person she's been in contact with. The Engineer has to be saved in a fraction part of her chip. Let's just hope it's like Vick's chip." John said getting the box cutter ready.

"It weird." Sarah said looking at Cameron on the bed curious.

"Weird?" John looked at his mother.

"It's as if future John ordered her to find the Engineer or Cameron wouldn't even care but to protect you. Do you think it was part of the reason Cameron kept Vick's chip to see if it killed or seen the Engineer?" Sarah said trying to understand the logic behind Cameron's actions.

"Could be…now that I think about it, it makes sense," said John and turned towards his protector. He placed his hand on her hair. "We'll find out on her chip."

"Let's hope that's all we find on it." Sarah said reassuring her son that they may find out more then they bargain for, still not fully trusting Cameron's motives.

John paused by his mother words understanding her concern. He also hoped it was all they find too. He began to cut deep into her scalp and removed her hair. The chip hub was visible as he used a flat screw driver to open the port. Carefully, John removed the chip from her metal skull as he stared at it. He went over to his computer and placed it into a custom made eternal hard drive which was slightly different then the one he used to activate Vick's chip previously.

Coming into the house, Derek was looking around for the Connors as it was quiet in the house which put him on alert. The jeep was parked outside which meant they were in the house. He looked up upstairs and walked up the steps. Slowly, Derek looked around and drew his gun of the uncomfortable atmosphere in the house. He stopped in front of John's bedroom door at it was the only room lit in the house brightly.

Baffled about what was going on, he saw John working on his computer while Cameron was lying down on his bed. Unpleasant thoughts went through his head hoping John was doing something he wasn't thinking about. The attachment bond he had for the machine, when he put his life in jeopardy by placing Cameron's chip back into her skull, started to have doubts of where his future leader mindset was heading.

"Something you want to confess," said Derek not humored of the scene he stumbled upon. "What's wrong with the machine?"

John felt irritated by his words as Sarah stepped into the door way which made Derek come into the room.

"Cameron," John corrected him again knowing it was about to turn ugly. "We hit a snag."

"We're trying to fix the problem." Sarah said.

"What problem?"

"Her chip is damaged and we don't know what the problem is yet. I think the explosion did more then affect her chip." John explained.

"Do you know anything about an Engineer John sent back?" Sarah asked Derek as her only link to her future son's mission.

"A Engineer?" He looked at her clueless.

"Cameron said find the Engineer as we're assuming that John sent back. Before she completely went off line that's what she said and that only the Engineer can fix her." Sarah replied.

"John never told us about a Engineer. He told us to set up a safe house, find out about Skynet and stop it before it's developed." Derek answered interested about the Engineer just like them.

"It's strange how the machine just says things when it's convent for it," said Derek sardonically. "Maybe keeping it offline is not a bad idea. You don't know what may come out of her chip when you plug it in this time. If you plug in that defective chip, you'll do more harm then good John."

John was waiting for his uncle to say this, which was why he wished he wasn't here until this was done. At least with his mother she's not to direct with her words and wanted to help Cameron.

"We need her to fight Skynet. I'm going to fix her." John said sternly looking at his laptop screen.

"You're getting too attached to it. It's not human John!" Derek said scornfully.

"Derek!" said Sarah making him stop his prejudice. "John sent a Engineer. We have to find him or her before Skynet does. If the Engineer can build a time machine inside a bank vault, I want to find them."

Derek stepped back towards the wall as he leaned on it with his arms crossed, letting go of his allegations towards the machine. It was nothing getting around Sarah words in this house as he noticed, in which annoyed him to no end.

"Okay it's coming up." John said punching keys on his laptop as algorithms started to appear on his screen.

Seconds later, Cameron's view screen appeared. It became a two way mirror as it identified John fully and then Sarah and Derek from the computer camera. Sarah came closer to the screen curious, wanting to know what's on Cameron's chip or maybe the facts she wanted to see what her future son would look like.

Cameron's screen started to become static as the image jumped to a different time period. John noticed right away what was happening as the machine coding resembled Vick's chip but a little bit different. It was playing a memory on Cameron's chip.

The dark, windy, inhospitable clement, shown over a destroyed buildings, Derek knew what he was looking at clearly, the future. The Future in which shocked both the Connors as he glanced at them both. Cameron view mode shifted to the right looking at the back of a person, covered in layers of ragged clothing which enclosed almost there entire body. A large resembles of a sniper rifle, bigger then the person, was strapped to their back. The person looked out into the broken drenched world where once mighty buildings stood that gave the city its unique name.

"Is that LA?" John asked horrified that it was nothing there.

Cameron view mode goes static again like Vick's chip then goes pitch black.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked as the image was gone.

John started typing on his computer quickly. "Not sure, everything is still functional."

John paused as his command prompt disappeared from the screen. Seconds later, a yellow circle appeared in the left part of his screen. Following it, white small dots appeared in eight columns covering his entire screen. The yellow circle spilt its mouth open in a forty-five degree angle. It began to move forward as its mouth started to eat the small white dots in each column at a rapid pace.

The image on the screen left both the Connors and Derek curious.

"Is that…Pacman?" Derek said getting closer to the screen.

It finally hit him as John eyes widen in shock.

"It's a virus!" John shouted frantically as he started to quickly type to bring up the command prompt but nothing was happening.

"A virus? Can you stop it?!" Sarah asked.

"I can't. It's blocking me out of everything. It's eating my files as well!" John finally got the command prompt up asking for a code. "Code? What's the code?"

The simulated Pacman started to eat the last line quickly.

"Take the chip out now!" Sarah commanded John seeing there time was almost up.

John grabbed Cameron's chip but automatically the power shut off in the entire house as it was pitch black in the room. Sarah, John and Derek looked around the room wondering what happen but something else was brought to Sarah's attention. She walked over to John's window.

"I think the power out is a little more wide spread." Sarah said in shock of what her eyes was looking at.

John and Derek walk over to the window as they looked surprised. The entire block was completely dark as they looked at the power box on the pole. Sparks fly out of the power box like fire works, as smoke sizzled from it.

"I told you so just won't make this better, will it?" Derek said looking down the block.

Both the Connors looked at him.


	5. The Engineer

**Chapter 5- The Engineer**

Crawling on the bedroom floor, blood stain trailing behind on the beige carpet of a gun shot wound to his chest, a man frantically was trying to get away from the monster standing in his bedroom doorway. Breathing heavily, using his left arm to drag his body across the room, he made his way to his desk smearing blood on his papers trying to force himself up to his feet. However, the pain to his chest was hindering his mobility as all he could do was stare at the tall man that slaughtered his entire family.

Entering the room as the gun man stepped to the side; Ms. Dealer casually walked over the wounded man's dead wife on the floor like a useless object, not phased by the bullet in the woman's skull and headed over towards her husband.

"You monsters!" The man shouted watching his wife be treated like she was nothing.

"You killed my family! My children! They were just kids! H-How could you?!" He shouted in rage remembering the blood stained beds his children laid in coming home from work.

"You humans call it free will," said Ms. Dealer emotionless, unaffected by her actions of the murder. "Now use that free will to talk Mr. Downer."

"What do you what…from…me?" He asked trying to catch his breathe from the gun shot wound as it was making it difficult.

"A person came by and asked you some questions about the new SNP-BXX serious you're working for me. I told you what will happen if you told anybody about any of our work unless instructed by me." Ms. Dealer explained as she bent down in eye level towards Mr. Downer making sure he wasn't going to lie to her.

"I didn't…I didn't tell anybody, I swear!" He said terrified.

"Oh, but you did," said Ms. Dealer. "A student that goes to University of DeVry, came to you two week ago asking about the new SNP-BXX that the company was producing. Do you know what that product does, Mr. Downer? It power design for large machines and electromechanical control of our facilities."

"B-But that's not…i-important." Mr. Downer said knowing those products were used by big machine companies all around the world.

"Everything is important," said Ms. Dealer sternly. "When our products are out shipped, there all tracked on the central database."

"This person wasn't going to say anything. It was for her class project." He said pleading his argument.

"Sometimes class projects can end up on the authorities' door steps." Ms. Dealer said scathingly.

Ms. Dealer stood up and took out her gun inside her black long trench coat. She placed a silencer on it. Downer's eyes widen as his eyes was flooded with tears, shaking to death in fear.

"Your service is no longer needed." Ms. Dealer said and shot the man three times, two in the chest and one to the head.

Downer's body stopped shaking and sled to the floor.

"The Engineer was here," said Dealer to her personal bodyguard. "I want SF Gate Company swept clean for anything that looks irregular. I know she left something behind and I want it found. Send Clinton's team to DeVry University. I want to know what she was doing there."

Barrack nodded his head to her command as he walked out of the room to carry out his employer's orders.

* * *

Stepping out of her car, Madison eyes gaze upon San Diego police station. Closing his door and fixing his suit jacket, Ellison was still puzzled why his new partner dragged him two hours out of LA to visit a police station. A simple phone call would have made it easier.

They both started to walk up the long steps of the police station together.

"So what are we doing her and not investigating the crime scene?" Ellison asked.

"A police officer was the only witness when the incident happened. I want to get his personal words on what he saw. I could have talked to him on the phone, but I learned people tend to lie over the phone." Madison smirked.

A young male cop, eating a Boston Cream donut, was flipping through papers on a case he was working on. He placed his donut on a napkin and grabbed his coffee cup and sipped it, enjoying the decaf in the evening to jump start his day. He placed his coffee down releasing a small burp, tapping his chest and then looked back at his files.

The police man looked up and flinched, startled by Madison's presence in a chair in front of him.

"You scared me." He said looking at the unknown woman.

"I get that a lot," said Madison. She showed her his badge as Ellison walked over and stood behind her showing his badge as well. This surprised the young cop wondering why two FBI Agents were at his station during this time of day. It was unusual from his previous visits from them.

"Can I ask you some questions about the Trenton street crime case from two weeks ago, Mr. Riddle?" Madison asked politely.

"Sure, sure no problem and please call me Jack," He said as he straighten himself up in his chair. "Why the interest? That case was closed, unsolved."

"Unsolved means nobody have solved it yet which is not officially closed in our book." Ellison stated as he took a seat next to Madison in a chair.

"You're not in trouble Mr. Riddle, we think your case is involved in national security we're investigating. Just tell us what you saw." Madison said hoping his story wouldn't be a waste of there time.

"Even if it sounds crazy, we won't laugh at you." Ellison informed him from what he read on the file coming to San Diego as it sounded farfetched even to him.

Jack looked around watching the other cops go about there day as they were not particularly interested of the two people in front of his desk. He leaned forward as if about to tell a secret and not wanting others to hear in his department.

"People around here think I'm crazy but I know what I saw that night," said Jack which drew in Ellison attention quickly. "I was just on a routine check in my scheduled area at night. I know I worked almost twenty hour shift for extra pay…but I was walking to my car and I heard gun fire. Not the regular run of the mills little BB gun turf war would carry, but standard military weapons. I thought I was briefly living in a movie for a second of how quick it happened."

Ellison looked at his partner puzzled then back at the young cop.

"I saw a girl, around the age of sixteen or seventeen, running across the street from an alley with an M16 assault rifle in her hands. She stopped and fired into the alley. Must girls I seen are afraid to fire a gun properly, but this girl was firing it like a pro military marksman. Then an RPG came shooting out of the alley, missing the girl and blows a car up. The girl runs for cover behind a car, unfortunately it's my police car where I was hiding behind as I was trying to call for back up." Jack explained.

Madison becomes curious by his story as she sat up in her chair.

"I asked the girl what was going on," Jack continued. "She said stay and don't move or they'll kill you. Then she used a grenade launcher attached to her M16, fires it and then runs down another alley. I was going to follow her until I saw three men running after her dressed in black opts clothing, down the alley. I figured out what her words meant when she said stay down. In all my rookie years being on the force, I've never seen anything like this happening in my life."

"Wow, that does sound like it comes out of a movie scene," said Ellison thinking why his peers thought he was crazy. "Do you know what the girl looks like?"

"Actually I have seen her around, hanging out at DeVry University…my younger brother takes Computer Science courses there. When I told him what happened, the girl I described sounded just like a girl in one of his classes. But he thought it was impossible because she was like a normal girl. She liked comic books, games, nerd stuff my brothers likes in which he had a crush on her. I would have blown it off but I had to see for myself. The next day all information of the girl was deleted, it was like she never existed."

"Never existed?" Ellison thought strangely.

"The teachers that knew who she was couldn't find any information on her, homework papers…nothing. My brother said only FBI, CIA or grade A hackers could pull that off to not be found out or erased from the world." Jack explained.

"What was the girl's name?" Madison asked.

"Ehh…her name was weird…Seen Xavier." Jack told them.

Madison stood up from her chair hearing everything she wanted.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Riddle." Madison said.

Walking out of the police station going down the steps, Madison and Ellison was coming towards the car.

"Always interesting in person." Madison said feeling anxious in finding this girl.

"As intrigued by this story as you, how does this help our case?" Ellison asked skeptical of this girl related to finding the machine.

"Bread crumbs Mr. Ellison, bread crumbs. A teenage girl carrying an M16 and can fire it right, whether this becomes a dead end or not, I want her off the streets. Luckily nobody besides the unidentified men was the only ones dead at the crime scene or it could have turned into a blood bath. I find it even stranger that a girl can cover her tracks like an FBI Agent, which kind of scares me, just like our impersonator Agent Kester by placing himself in the FBI database system." Madison explained.

"You think she could have helped him somehow?" Ellison asked curious what she was truly thinking of this case. If he thought about it, ignoring the fact Kester was a machine, it does sound plausible.

"Even if it's a machine from the future as you say, it will still need help on accessing information of this time. Or this little girl could be tied end with the new mysterious person that everybody down under is afraid of. Either way," Madison opened her car door. "Where not completely wasn't our time trying to find her."

Madison got into her car followed by Ellison heading towards there next destination, DeVry University.

* * *

A swarm of men, some cops while others wore bright orange jackets saying LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) were outside fixing the brownout of the blown electrical transformer that left ten blocks without power last night. Two men were taking off the cover of the transformer attached to the top of the power pole and placed it down gently on there loading pad. Both men looked baffled and curious of what there eyes were gazing upon.

"It's as if it's been melted on the inside," said one worker still smelling the burning wires. "There were no storms yesterday, so what caused it to fry up like this?"

"I don't know. Look, I want to get home by dinner time. Let's just fix the entire board." An older worker said not caring about the situation.

"But don't you find it weird that this is the only one like this and not the others."

"No not really." The older worker said leisurely.

Scanning the perimeter through a window, not liking the crowded crew outside, Derek was on alert as he stood in an unlit house. This type of attention was what they couldn't afford as they were lucky the power outage was just in there area and not the entire city. He wasn't sure what the power the machine's chip could do. Derek saw what it did to one traffic light; causing a brown out should be nothing in the machines capabilities.

"This is great. No power until god knows how long. Lucky for us the cops are not asking question or we're all be sharing a cell together." Derek said as Sarah come into the room and looked outside with him.

She hears footsteps coming up from the basement seeing her son holding a flashlight.

"I fixed the circuit breaker to the house but won't do us any good until the transformer is fixed outside," said John walking over to his mother and uncle. "But on top of all this, my laptop is fried along with all the equipment that was attached to it. I can't even repair any of it."

"Looks like we got knocked out and Skynet didn't even lift a finger to help." Sarah said shaking her head of the bad luck her family have been running into everyday.

"Sure about that."

John looked at his uncle. "What are you saying?"

"Maybe the machine was sent back to actually cripple us in stopping Skynet." Derek stated.

"I wouldn't of sent her back if she was unstable," said John frustrated by his uncle accusations all the time about Cameron. "Beside the virus is man made anyway."

"Man made?" Sarah glanced at her son curious.

"Well, if you think about it, it's actually pretty funny. It's like giving Skynet the middle finger if Cameron was recaptured by them again." John chuckled about the Pacman idea.

"Wait…why didn't future John use this in the future?" Derek said confused. If they used this the war could have been over already.

"Judging from what this virus can do…who's to say I created it. If we find the Engineer that put the virus in Cameron's chip in the first place, maybe we will get our answer." John replied.

Derek chuckled to himself. "That's if the person is real."

His smart remark started to piss John off even more. "She wasn't sent her to kill me, but to help us…to stop Judgment Day, okay. We need all the help we can get."

John saw Derek un-care-free attitude which irritated him to no end. "Forget it. Nothing I say will change your mind!"

John gave his uncle a stern look and headed towards the door.

"John wait!" Sarah shouted for her son. "Where are you going?!"

She saw him grab his light weight sweater jacket on a chair and stormed out the front door.

"John I said wait a minute!" Sarah yelled chasing after her son down the driveway.

Without a protector to be with him, Sarah wasn't ready to let her son wonder alone on the streets. Sarah immediately paused, coming to the end of the driveway. A cop car drove up to the side of the walkway as she quickly turned around, concealing her face to not be identified. She was still a fugitive and she didn't feel like having a showdown with the cops today.

The cop stepped out of his car and walked over to the men repairing the transformer on the pole next to the Connor's house.

"Gotta love children, especially boys."

A familiar voice caught Sarah's attention as she saw her pregnant neighbor who looked to be do at any time, was watching the repair man fix the transformer.

Sarah smiled at her then turned her attention towards the direction her son went as he was out of site.

"You have no idea."

* * *

Collecting his thoughts and still fuming from the words from his uncle, John was walking the streets of Los Angeles trying to clear his head. His mind was too jumbled at this point, from the fear his world was collapsing upon him sooner then expected. With Cameron out of commission and them not even close in finding the Engineer, what did the couple of days lied in store for him. It was never a dull minute in the Connor family, John thought.

A PC store caught his eyes as he walked over to the window. In the window display, the store showed different verities of laptops brands as one caught John's interest in the new TZ Sony Vaio. He glanced at the price over eighteen hundred and thought that price was ridicules which made him walk away from the store window. It would be fun to own one of them since his laptop fried, but he would have to wait to address the money issue in the household. They were still poor in a since to acquire any new technology at this moment.

Curious, John paused in front of a comic book store as he looked at a superman poster. When was the last time he come into one of these stores, he thought. When his mother wanted him to be a big hero for mankind, John always thought of Superman, Batman, X-men and his childhood favorite Iron Man. He forgot what it was to live in those dream worlds and be a true hero to the people eyes, without having an apocalypse happen to become one.

Seeing through the window he saw the store owner at the counter as John figured it would be nostalgic to read a good comic book again, wanting a little piece to remember his childhood imagination.

He opened the door and walked in. His eyes wondered around the clattered store seeing four rows of comic books in brown boxes on long tables in the middle of the floor, resembling more of a flee market. John quickly browsed through one set of boxes looking at an old X-Men comic book from the 80's. He smiled remembering those high color uniforms the X-Men team wore.

A Superman book placed on a chair caught his attention. John looked around, seeing only two customers in the store and picked up the book. The artwork on the cover was amazing as he looked at the official title, Superman: Kingdom Come. He smiled and opened the book gazing at the detail artwork of the first page. The comic book must have been up to date as it didn't resemble any artwork he seen when growing up, John thought.

Skimming through a few pages, John closed the book and looked on the back. He saw the price, finding it affordable and started to walk towards the counter.

Before he could arrive at the counter, a teenage girl jumped in front of him in a hurry.

"Did you get it in, Mr. Thomson?" She asked the store owner politely.

He smiled at the girl's eagerness. "Yes, Yes Seen. I got it for you. Hold on, I'll go get it in the order bin in the back."

Seen brightly smiled. "Thanks."

"Anyway, what's the hurry? On the clock?" Thomson said going through the order bin to look for her item she ordered.

"The boss says I can't keep hanging out her to much while on the job. He says I have a bad habit or something." Seen answered as she looked to her right spotting John overhearing the conversation.

She paused as she gazed at him curious which caught John's attention of her stare. Before he could fully see her face, Seen looked the other way quickly trying to ignore him. John thought it was odd and then looked at his clothing making sure it was nothing offensive that would offend her to put her on edge such as blood stains.

"I hear you on that," said the store owner as he came out the back with a puzzled look. "That's strange. I put the book in the order box this morning. Where it go? My son must have moved it. He's probably outside. I'll go get him."

Before he could move, he acknowledged John standing next to Seen. He smiled. What he was searching for was in his hand.

"Hey, there it is." Thompson said pointing at the Superman book John wanted to buy.

Seen looked at John as her book she ordered was in his hands.

Caught on the spot John smiled at them. "Sorry, I saw it on a chair. I didn't think it was held for anybody. Here."

John held out the book for Seen to take it.

"You sure? It took almost two weeks to get this book in." Seen said not wanting to take away from him buying the book.

"It's okay." John said smiling at her.

Seen took the book from his hand. "Thanks."

She pulled out her money from her pocket and placed it on the counter. The store owner took the money and apologized to the two teenagers of the misplacement.

John and Seen walked out of the comic store as Seen was excited to read the book. She looked at John one last time.

"Thanks again." Seen said and walked away from him.

From the small mix up, John thought he still should have bought a comic book before he left the store. Maybe next time, whenever that will be in his busy schedule, he thought.

A six year boy playing with a tennis ball caught John's attention as he was hitting the ball against a wall in front of the comic book store. He threw the ball to the wall very hard but the ball bounced back over his head and onto the main street. It rolled near a car as the boy felt depressed that his father told him not to run into the street without an adult to escort him. John smirked at the child's disappointing expression.

"Wait, I'll get it." John said being helpful.

"Thanks." The little boy said watching John go into the street as the ball stopped in front of a Cadillac Escalade.

Up high on a building across the street, a window washer was washing the windows being suspended by a landing pad to hold him steady. He took out his scraper and did one window in a slow motion to make sure he collected all of the suds in every angle. He wiped it clean and started to collect more of it again.

The belt bungle that was attached to his landing pad started to loosen. The man was oblivious to it and kept on washing the window.

A bicycle biker with head phones on was riding down the side walk, enjoying his heavy metal music which made him unable to hear much around his surrounding.

The Window washer pause his movements. Screeching noise from the rope caught his attention. He started to look around him to identify the noise as his eyes shifted up. The buckle was unloosing itself that held the landing pad together. His eyes widen in shock as he looked down of the long drop below.

"Hey kid STOP!!" He shouted as the biker was almost in direct line into his path underneath him. The window washer quickly ties himself to his landing pad to secure his position to not fall off before the rope snapped.

The people below heard the man's screaming voice as they look up.

The rope gave way on one side of his landing pad. The window washer screamed and held onto dear life while his landing pad fell vertical. The material that was held on it fell off and landed on the ground, causing a loud bang.

The biker's eyes widen as he swerved, missing the debris in front of him and turned his bike to the left quickly. The high speed of his bike acceleration didn't make the situation easier as he collided into a car which flipped him over the roof of the car and on the other side harshly.

The biker cursed to himself holding his head, dazed from that mere miss of death as he looked up. His jaw dropped in shock. Body paralyzed in fear, he saw a Ford Dodge truck about to ram into his body. The truck driver quickly put on his breaks as the truck swerve to the left. The biker quickly ducks down in a fetus position as the truck misses him by inches from his body.

John finally grabbed the tennis ball but looked up hearing skidding noise from a truck. Stunned, as his body froze, the Ford Dodge truck was directly coming towards him in full force.

Pain struck his leg as John body collapse backwards, hitting his head on the concrete ground. An unknown force grabbed his chest and pulled him backwards like a rubber band.

The speeding fast out of control truck crashed directly into the Cadillac Escalade which stopped the movement of the truck.

Screams, disarray and panic filled the once peaceful street in seconds of the accident. The witness that weren't hurt called the police immediately as one witness looked above. He glanced at the Window washer still in trouble. The witness shouted for him to don't move around as he did what the man instructed him to do.

Touching the back of his head, feeling lightheaded, John finally started to come around. His eyes slowly opened, but was startled when he saw the front of the Ford truck smashed hood. He quickly glanced up seeing the engine of another car as it was suspended high off the ground for him to fit under.

Confused and frighten, John felt something hug around his chest. His eyes shifted downward seeing a human arm. Baffled, as he moved backwards, he felt something behind him. Unsure, John felt the presence started to move hearing footsteps leading away from him.

John slowly turned around to his other side but was in shock. A hand was placed out for him to take it as John was flabbergasted. His life was saved by the girl he gave the comic book too.

"Come on take my hand." Seen said reaching her hand out.

John crawled out from under the car and toke her hand to help himself up off the ground.

Still dazed, John wasn't sure what was going on but he had to move before the cops arrived. He looked at Seen staring at him as he noticed she wasn't much in a panic mode as he was. His heart was beating faster then his mind was thinking of what to do next.

However, the change in Seen's expression as people started to gather around her, made her panic. Seen quickly looked around and then at the person she saved.

"Don't cause a scene, John. Just run."

John eyes widen surprised. "How…how do you know my name?"

Standing up, not answering him she quickly made herself disappear as she pushed herself through the crowd fleeing the scene.

Looking around, people started to ask questions if he was okay. In the distance John heard police sirens as he had to disappear before they came. His eyes shifted forward one last time where his savior vanished and then followed her advice, running away from the horrific accident.

* * *

Frustrated, nervous and furious of her son's actions earlier, Sarah was pacing in the house back and fourth looking out of the window every minute. Eating chips at the kitchen table, Derek have been watching Sarah movements as it was becoming irritating the longer he kept watching her. Power was still not in the house as watching TV to divert his attention was out of the question. However, there was one behavior he never seen Sarah do as she was biting her nails. For almost two hours he saw her file both her nails down which he thought was odd.

Derek ate another chip watching Sarah look out the window again.

"Okay I had enough of this," said Derek as he stood up putting his bag of chips down. "We'll look for him."

"Come on." Sarah said as she grabbed the keys on the lamp table near the couch. The lamp light came on which puzzled her. Her eyes drifted to the living room as she saw the kitchen light came back on and then the middle hallway light. She thought to herself the power was fixed, however finding her son was her top priority.

She walked over to the front door but it flung open quickly.

Out of breath, frantic, John looked at his mother.

"John what's wrong?! Are you hurt?!" Sarah went over to her son's side seeing his frighten expression which alerted his uncle. A red stain on his jacket caught Sarah's attention as she looked at her son.

"You have blood on your jacket?" She said trying to get some words out of her son's disarray.

John waved his hand back and fourth. "I'm fine! I'm fine!"

He looked around noticing the power was back on and rushed over to the TV. The controller was on it as he hastily picked it up. He turned on the TV, flicking quickly for the news channel. An anchor woman came on for channel 6 being at the crash scene reporting what happen.

Sarah and Derek looked confused at John, trying to understand what he was telling them.

"I was there, in the accident!" John said.

"Wait, what?" Sarah was still confused.

"I think I found her," John gave his mother and uncle a serious look coming to a conclusion as he was running home. "I think I found the Engineer."

Sarah and Derek paused, in shock.


	6. Answers

**Chapter 6- Answers**

Stepping out of a car, Madison and Ellison finally made there way to DeVry University to find there mystery girl, that have already broken numerous federal laws that could send a person to prison for life. Both FBI Agents walked through the doors coming into the main office of the college campus. Feeling nostalgic, Ellison was looking around, haven't been in a college in almost twenty years as he remembered his wild adolescent years at the college he attended.

Madison walked up to the counter and saw a young secretary occupied on her computer who looked more like a student attending the college. The secretary looked to her left already noticing the two well clothed Agents as she smiled at them.

"May I help you please?" The secretary asked cheerfully.

"Yes you can," Madison showed her FBI badge which made the secretary straighten up in her chair never seeing federal agents enter the campus. "Were looking for a young girl that attended here named Seen Xavier?"

"Sure no problem. Let me check," said the secretary as she dabbled on her computer quickly. She looked confused not finding the name anywhere. "There's nobody by that name attending this college."

"Figures," Ellison mumbled as the police officer's story was not a fabrication. "Do you mind if we ask other counselors who are in charge of students closer to the end of the alphabet?"

"Sure no problem. It would be Mary Blessing who would be in charge of students with the last names from S through Z. Her office is located on the second floor, third door on the right coming off the elevator." The secretary explained.

"Thank you for your time." Ellison said as both Agents walked to there next destination.

Making there way to the counselor's front door, Ellison lightly knocked on the door grabbing the counselor's attention who was working on files on her desk. Ellison showed his badge which put the counselor on edge.

"How can I help you?" The counselor asked.

"Sorry to bother you Ms. Blessing. We're doing an FBI investigation. Have you heard of a girl named Seen Xavier?" Ellison asked. "Don't bother checking her files because we already asked and they don't exist on the computer database."

"I don't need to with a name like that," said Mary smiling at them. "I do remember her but when a police officer asked for her files a while back, the school's database couldn't even find it. Like she was a ghost, which is kind of scary because I was talking to the girl and helped her set up her classes. Nice girl too. However, a teacher named Mr. Burton, whose head of the technology department on the third floor spoke highly of Seen, which is why I remembered her so well. He said she was a rare gifted student he only had ever few decades in his life. She helped set up the eastern wing of the latest technology our school bought."

"Sound like a bright kid. Thank you." Ellison said as Madison and him walked out of the office.

"Wow another floor to travel." Madison said sarcastically not liking all the running around.

"Look on the bright side, at least the girl _is_ real." Ellison smiled at her.

Making there way to the third floor in front of professor Burton's office door, it was closed. A sign was placed on the door to come back at five o'clock. Ellison sighed in frustration. Madison looked at her watch.

"Three hours," Madison smiled at Ellison. "Cafeteria is open. I'm going to lunch. Will check around the college campus as well, with the computer science students. Somebody must have seen her around."

* * *

A slender early thirty year old man dressed in rugged clothing, walked into an ITT Technology school as he was looking around the vicinity cautiously. Every female student that passed in the hallway, he checked each one carefully to find his target. A woman at the main desk saw the man watching a female student as his appearance came off to her as a stalker. She was about to call security but didn't want to jump the gun first without asking why the strange man was larking around the hallway.

"Can I help you sir?" The woman asked politely.

"Yes you can," said the man as he walked over to the desk. He gave her a kind smile as the woman thought he was attractive as a rock star type.

"I'm looking for my little cousin. I wanted to surprise her today. I haven't seen her in a long time since she was seven years old. Since I'm in town for a little bit and I heard my friend said she was attending her. I wanted to say hey that I didn't forget her. A family joke." The man said as his baby face smile made the conversation sound more believable.

This made the woman blush of gazing into his emerald colored eyes. She turned to her screen as the image of a stalker she saw before went out the window.

"Sure. I'll be glad to help. What is her name?" She asked ready to type on her computer.

"If I remember correctly its Seen…huh Seen…I'm sorry, this is embarrassing. I haven't seen her in a long time." He looked dumbfounded and innocent.

"Don't worry, that name sounds unusual so it shouldn't be a problem to pull her up." The woman said.

"Thank you, thank you so much." The man put his hand together showing a pleading side to him.

The woman checked her computer while glancing one or twice at the cute guy watching her. A file came up as she clicked onto it.

"Here she is, Seen Winters," said the woman. "She doesn't have any classes scheduled today but she has them tomorrow. I can tell her you came by?"

The guy carefully looked at the monitor seeing something particular in which was all he needed to accomplish his objective.

"No thanks. I'll come back tomorrow and catch her then. Thank you." The man said and walked away from the desk.

Walking outside of the school, the man pulled out his phone from his pocket. It rings as somebody on the receiving end picked up.

"Her last name changed, it's Seen Winters. Her address is 61 Block Street in Los Angeles County. Tell Ms. Dealer will have the package in less then twenty four hours." The man said and closed his phone.

A sliding door to a black van opened in front of him as he stepped inside. He closed it behind himself and stared at his comrades. Five men, different in size and looked Russian, stared at there colleague hoping for good news.

"Let's go claim our money." He said which brighten the men's spirit as the driver drove off.

* * *

Scanning the area of the accident scene, Sarah and Derek saw heavy reporters from every news station covering the major story of the destruction. Tow trucks, ambulance, police cars to fire trucks crowed the streets which put up red warning signals in Sarah's mind to flee the seen before her face was caught on TV again. From what her son said she had to find answers and find the engineer.

Surprised, Derek looked around the scene to find clues of the girl that saved his nephew earlier today.

"Jeez, you're extremely lucky, John. Thank the person that saved you." Derek said assessing the accident himself which was shocking to him.

"All the things to die from, I thought it would come from the future and not a traffic accident." John said watching the truck that would have crushed his body, being railed up on a tow truck.

"You're alive now…so will take it," said Sarah looking at her son's discomfort then back at the car accident. "Let's find what we need and leave. Too many reporters out her."

A boy bouncing a tennis ball in his hand caught John's attention, as he was the same boy in front of the comic book store previously. Not liking coincidences, it was a good lead to figure out who saved him. He glanced at a camera mounted to the comic book store as there was his answer. Lining up the camera angle to the accident, it was perfect, John thought.

John walked over to the child as this made the boy stop bouncing his ball, already recognizing John early from today.

"You remember me?" John asked.

The little boy nodded his head to the question.

"You're okay right about what happened?"

The boy nodded his head again but showed him his yellow tennis ball thanking him for getting it, although the boy knew he was in the accident.

"Did you see anything?"

The boy nodded his head. "It happened very fast."

It wasn't the answer John was aiming at but decided to ask his next question.

"Is your father in?" John asked which alerted his mother's attention. She quickly saw the surveillance camera mounted on the store and walked over towards her son understanding his actions.

The little boy nodded his head once more and went into the comic book store. John and Sarah followed behind. Watching the Connors head into the shop, Derek looked around the accident scene cautiously and followed the team inside the store.

* * *

A mid fifty year old man, named Walter Burton, was in his office watering his flowers that was sitting on the window ceil. He opened the window up to let in some fresh air, as he smiled at his flourishing plants he's been tending to for quite some time since he was left in charge of it. Moving back to his desk, he sat down and started typing on his computer working on a new assignment for his students. A light knock was heard on his door as he turned his head.

"May I help you?" He asked his new guests.

Ellison showed him his FBI badge and smiled at the professor.

"Sorry to introduced professor, Agent Ellison and this is Agent Madison," said Ellison introducing themselves. "And yes, you can help us. We're looking for a girl named Seen Xavier. The counselor said you knew her."

Professor Burton eyes widen in excitement.

"Ah, yes Seen Xavier….I always thought her name was weird." Burton smiled at them making fun of her name when he first met the young girl.

"Seen was a bright girl, a neck in the technology department in our curriculum. She stayed after school to help us out setting up the new eastern wing for the new classes. Getting our older teachers who aren't up to techno savvy was difficult part for us."

Burton remembered as he chuckled watching the new teachers learn the new improvements.

"Anyway, Seen did very well in our computer science courses. I heard it was the only classes she stayed awake in from what her other teachers told me." Burton explained.

"Sound like a nice kid. Why do you think she left the school?" Ellison asked curious.

"I'm actually not even sure. You know young adults these days and their mind sets…I want to be a computer engineer the next a lawyer. It could be anything. However, she did ask numerous questions of what type of projects the school was doing at ITT Technology that I recommended in Baton Rouge in LA. Maybe that school can help you of her where about, that's what I told the other guys." Burton explained, intrigued of what happened to his student as well.

Both Agents looked at each other confused.

"What other guys?" Ellison and Madison asked in unison.

"The other police officers that were here looking for Miss. Xavier before you guys come early this morning."

Ellison looked at his partner of the information. She nodded her head as he understood her body language.

"Thank you for your time." Ellison said as they both walked out of the professor's office.

"I have a hunch." Madison said walking down the hallway.

"A hunch and what is that?" Ellison asked as they come to a door. He stepped in front and opened it for her as they walk through.

"The girl is at the ITT Technology school. We need to move quickly on it before she can perform her magician act and disappear again."

Madison took out her cell phone and dialed a number. Another person picked up on the receiving end.

"Agent Stewart, get to ITT Technology School in Baton Rouge now. Look for a girl named Seen Xavier or Seen in general. She could have probably changed her last name. I want all the enrollments of female students that have entered the school in the past two weeks."

* * *

"I'm sorry that my father is not here," A teenage boy said looking at the Connors and Derek who was looking for the store owner. He went to his VCR and popped in a tape labeled 'Surveillance Type' as they all crowd around a TV as if about to watch a movie.

"My father is outside looking at the accident wanting to be in everybody business. I heard it was crazy," The boy said chuckling, still in disbelief a big accident happen in front of his father's small store. "So who are you guys again?"

"We're reporters for Fox news," said Derek looking around the back of the store making sure his father doesn't catch them. The teenage boy looked at them not convinced. Derek sighed and dug into his pocket pulling out money. "Here's fifty bucks."

All the doubt the boy had before was gone as he took the money.

"Okay. Anything to help the news." He smiled and then turned on his TV with a controller. He changes the input as the tape began to play.

Sarah and Derek eyes widen seeing the accident as they were in shock John survived it. John titled his head down not really concerned about the accident in general only in finding the engineer to help Cameron. He wished the boy fast forward the accident to get what he really was searching for.

Then he saw it. He saw Seen run towards the Cadillac Escalade and went under the car. John saw his past self being kicked on his leg and fall to the ground. His body was dragged under the jeep before the truck crashed into the Escalade.

"Hey what a minute," The teenage boy looked at John puzzled. "Isn't that you?"

The Connors and Derek looked at the curious boy and then at the tape.

"Stop the tape." Sarah said as it was a clear image of John's savior. Her mouth dropped in disbelief stunned by the image. Of all the people in the world, it had to be her. "Oh-My-God."

"I know that girl." The teenage boy said incredulity.

"What is she doing here?" Derek said confused knowing who saved his nephew.

* * *

Enjoying her meal at Joe's House, Seen was reading a Teen Titian comic book as she smiled enjoying the interactions among the children. She would have been reading her Superman book, but unfortunately she dropped it during the accident. She knew Mr. Thompson wasn't going to be pleased that she lost her book in less then a minute. Seen reached for her drink, took a sip and placed it back on the table.

The table moved as a body sat across the table from her. This made Seen uneasy feeling this presence before and knew she was busted big time. She slowly looked up and saw John brightly smile at her.

"Hi, you remember me. You saved me today." John said happily being sarcastic.

Seen quaint her eyes as this was turning bad. She cursed to herself. She glanced to her left and saw the bathroom door, always knowing it was a good escape route out of the restaurant incase of danger.

However, that plan went out the window when she saw Sarah's serious glare directed at her. Seen cursed to herself twice from her carelessness.

"Don't even think about it." Sarah said as if telepathically knowing what Seen was thinking.

Appearing behind Sarah, Derek causally walked up to Seen's side. He looked down upon the lone child watching her expression as if caught in the act of stealing cookies out of the cookie jar. All the answers from the cookies missing all pointed to her.

"Let's go Seen." Derek told her.

* * *

In John's bed, lifeless like a doll and powered offline, the Connors, Derek and Seen were looking at the protector future John sent back.

"Can you fix her?" John asked looking at Seen concerned.

"Fix what," said Seen accessing briefly of Cameron's condition. "There's nothing physically damage from what I can see…unless," She looked practically at John knowing the others wouldn't do it. "...You pulled out her chip."

"She was malfunctioning," said John glancing at Cameron. "I tired to repair the damage, but whatever affected her caused a brown out throughout the entire neighborhood. Also it fried my entire computer equipment in the process."

Seen smirked chuckling to herself as this alerted John and the others who thought the situation was not amusing. It took LADWP almost all day to fix the power.

"What's so funny?" Sarah asked behind the two teenagers.

"Well at least it worked."

"Meaning…and in English please?" Sarah asked hoping to avoid a problematical explanation engineers love to explain to the dumber population to endorse them money.

"Well, Cameron is the most highly structured and built infiltrator Skynet have ever constructed...that's if Skynet made her directly without an outside influence. That's still up in the air because of the way she was built," said Seen still unsure of Cameron's origin herself.

"However, when I was out of commission for a short period of time on the battle field, I helped John reprogram the fallen machines and made them help us stop Skynet in our campaign."

Derek smirked, shaking his head in disgust. Seen noticed it but ignored it directing her attention towards the Connors.

"I was the one that specifically reprogrammed Cameron. Her CPU chip is the most advanced we seen from Skynet then their older models. She can function without the orders from Skynet, acting mostly independently where previous machines couldn't fully succeed at, as they were compromised much quicker. We knew Skynet always had a connected link with their machines on the field. I come up with an idea and created a device that could track the out going signal and use it to our advantage and give the machines false command codes. Unfortunately, Skynet figured what we were doing quickly and upgraded the signal security and their newer models as well, in which case Cameron comes in. She's the most unpredictable model we ever acquired."

"You can say that again." John stated which sometimes worried him.

"Because of the unpredictability," Seen continued. "She needed a default switch in case she reverted back to her original programming."

"A default switch?" Sarah asked wishing Cameron would have said something sooner from trying to kill them previously.

"It took me three years but I created an artificial microscopic virus that could be implanted on the reprogrammed CPU chip. This would shut down the machine by a word, phrase or if their processing chip was taken out incase Skynet decided to re-reprogram them to use against us. You see when John put me on this task we couldn't figure out why some machines reverted back to their original programming if we wiped theirr chip clean. It's like an invisible blue print of the original program is still in tack but we are unable to see it, somewhere located on their chip that we haven't discovered."

"It's because it's what there built to do. You can't train them like pets." said Derek gruffly, disturbed more than the others about Seen involvement in this process. He thought her superior taught her better.

"You can't train a human but here we are living under a government called United States." Seen said sarcastically.

The Connors both smirked at that comment as she had a point. The government system was a prim example of keeping humans from destroying one another.

"What it all comes down to its luck," Seen continued. "Well a whole bunch of luck in preventing the machines from going bad on our part, which is where the virus fits in as our own insurance policy. With older machines before Cameron, the virus completely shut them down in seconds, effecting computer equipment attached to it to disable the enemy as well. However with Cameron, I didn't have enough time in testing to see if the virus worked on her. John wanted her quickly fully operational without any set backs."

Seen looked at Cameron and laid her backpack down on the bed, getting her laptop out.

"I _hoped_ the virus worked on her…and well… it did. Only John and I had the code if their chip were taken out to be safe on our part. One screwed up code by somebody tapering with something they don't understand and we're all done."

Seen placed her laptop on John's desk and a small navy blue box device with different size ports was visible to see on the surface. Fiber optic wires were connected to the blue box as the USB cord was plugged into her laptop to connect both the devices. The others watched as Sarah thought this picture reminded her of a Frankenstein movie. Seen was the scientist and Cameron was the monster about to become shocked back to life.

"Where's her chip?" Seen asked.

John walked over to his dresser and opened the second drawer. For safe keepings he hid Cameron's chip just in case something went wrong, or maybe the fact his uncle might burn the chip without him noticing, which brought him to the idea to hide it from plain sight. He pulled out a plastic bag as Cameron's chip was placed in it, safe from outside environmental damage. He carefully took it out of the bag, went over to Seen and handed her the chip.

Seen started her laptop up and took Cameron's chip. She placed it into the small port box as Cameron's chip quickly started to activate.

"Let's see here," Seen mumbled to herself typing on her laptop.

As before on John's laptop, a yellow Pacman and white small dots started to cloud the screen. Seeing deja vu over again, this alerted Sarah's attention to Seen's actions.

"Wait, you do know what you're doing right?" Sarah asked concerned standing behind the young girl beside John.

"Ehh…yeah. I think so…will see." Seen responded, as this didn't reassure the others in the room. John just realized that Seen was just winging it. She wasn't even sure herself as he wondered was she truly the real engineer Cameron was talking about.

A small command prompt came up as the virus already started to continue its assault on Seen's motherboard of destroying her files. Appearing in asterisks, Seen placed a long two line code in the command prompt.

Immediately, the Pacman stopped as her laptop screen started to dissolve into the regular screen mode.

"Hey," Seen smiled happily at the Connors like a child solving a puzzle. "What do you know, it worked."

Sarah stared at her glib response as she could have caused another brownout.

Cameron's view mode fully started to appear. Her chip was hacking into Seen's laptop and taking over the installed small Camera embedded on the top part of the laptop. Words started to appear on the screen as Seen smirked.

John read it and looked puzzled. "Tag you're it."

"I'm glad your sense of humor is in tack." Seen smiled. Only she understood the comment from Cameron.

Seen took out her chip and walked over to Cameron's full body. She placed her chip into her metal skull and moved her hair back over the port area.

Sarah looked at her son biting his thumb nail, sensing he was nervous and frustrated with the entire ordeal. She wasn't sure if his attachment to a machine was good. Obviously it trickled down to his subordinate, Seen. Sarah couldn't see the hateful prejudice like a Resistance Fighters have with the machines, like Derek. It was different.

Waiting for a minute, Cameron body was still frozen in place as this made John anxious.

"What's wrong? It's been over a minute." John said.

"It takes one hundred and twenty seconds to reboot. Just relax." Seen answered hearing the concern from his voice much greater then his mother and Derek.

Her head began to twitch, as Cameron's body became fully animated. Her view screen scanned the area as she looked at John and then Seen. Cameron lifted up her body and then placed her feet on the floor.

"Are you okay?" John asked.

His protector stood up and gave John a blank stare. "Yes."

Her eyes shifted back to Seen. "I told you your habits will get you caught."

Seen shrugged her shoulders.

Cameron lifted up her defected arm from previously as she started to ball her fist up repeatedly. Having her functioning system under her control again, she looked at John seeing his face flushed. She wondered was he sick.

Derek, though wished Cameron never came back, raise his hand like a child in a classroom.

"Question?" said Derek breaking up the happy atmosphere, which irritated him over a machine. "Why did John send you as our engineer? You're just a kid, no offense."

"Because it was an accident." Seen answered.

"An accident? What does that mean?" Sarah asked as this didn't make sense from her future son to send a child, unless Seen was in greater importance they haven't discovered yet.

"At three hundred hours the South Gate corridor in one of our camps was attacked by Sknyet," said Cameron explaining. "William Burdock was the original engineer that John assigned for the mission to come back to 2007, in help in our efforts to prevent Judgment Day. The mission was put under General Neil, one of John's top soldiers, to carry out his orders. General Neil was in charge of the second Time Displacement machine in case the first one in the main headquarters was damaged. However, Skynet found out about the location and launched a small tactical attack on the base. General Neil's team was pinned down and required backup."

Cameron looked at the engineer as Seen stared at the floor avoiding her gaze. Cameron glanced back at the Connors.

"A rescue squad from the E.R.T. Division Eleven was sent to extract the team to safety and destroy the second Time Displacement machine to not end up in Skynet hands. Seen's team was dispatched, but unfortunately when John heard the news from the only one survivor on the E.R.T. squad, General Neil sent back Seen instead as William Burdock who was killed in combat before he could make the jump." Cameron explained.

"Interesting," said Seen wondering a question. "Wait, if you know all of this…that means John's going to send another engineer back right?"

Seen smiled at her feeling confident that John will send back up in her place. She wasn't an engineer unlike the others. She was basically a field soldier.

"No." Cameron said flatly.

"Huh?" Seen looked at her confused.

"From John's direct orders. Sergeant Seen Watanabe, your mission is to aid with the attack on Skynet in 2007 and take orders from the captain in charge. Sorry and good luck." Cameron said repeating John's last words before she went through the time displacement field in 2027.

"Crap." Seen mumbled under her breath as she knew this was going to happen.

Out of everything the Connors heard only one thing expressed confusion on their face.

"You're Japanese?" John asked curious.

"Adopted." Seen said still trying to coop with the information Cameron just told her.

"Any questions?" Cameron asked Seen in her confusion.

"Yeah I actually have one last question," Seen looked directly at John. "Why do you look like you're still sixteen?"

John smirked as he realized she doesn't know they time travel over eight years of his life.

* * *

Hurrying down a pathway towards his car, Agent Stewart took out his phone and keys as he unlocked his car alarm. He quickly punched numbers on his phone as it began to ring.

"Agent Madison, I got the information you requested and you were right," said Stewart opening his car door. "The girl changed her last name. It's Seen Winters and she lives at 61 Block Street in Los Angeles County."

"Good, get the team over there fast before she skips town again." Madison instructed.

"Yes, ma'am." Stewart said and ended the phone call. He got into his car and dialed on his phone again to carry out Madison orders.

* * *

Coming out of her room and down the stairs, Sarah had questions about the new member in the group. Why she has been avoiding them? Why didn't she say anything to her at the restaurant when they first met? Why didn't she tell John who she was when she saved him? When did she arrive in 2007?

After roaming around the house for ten minutes, Sarah wondered did Seen disappear again. A figure on the porch outside the window caught her attention as she seen the engineer staring at the sky.

Quietly, Sarah stepped outside the porch closing the door behind her.

Already hearing the creaking noise from the door, Seen was well aware of Sarah's presences but kept her attention to the nightly sky. She was always fascinated how clean the sky was in watching the stars compared to in the future.

Not wanting to disturb her train of thought, Sarah looked at the sky with the teenager, nervous to ask her the multiple questions. She wasn't sure where to begin, not wanting to offend her either. Sarah decided to start off with something simple.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Seen asked focused on the sky.

"For saving my son today. I hate to say it but he's right. A traffic accident wasn't one of the things I thought he could die from." Sarah said as it became apparent that her son could die from anything and not just from a machine.

"You don't have to thank me," said Seen as she finally looked at John's mother. "It's what I do, save people. That's what my company is for. We're called the E.R.T. Emergency Response Team. When things hit the fan we're there to get you out."

"When we first met…how did you know it was me?" Sarah asked from their first encounter.

"You're kidding right, you're the Legend," Seen smirked hearing the stories from the adults in her company. "But I wouldn't have known it was you if I didn't see your picture from before."

"My picture?" Sarah immediately thought about John's father, Kyle Reese, saying he clocked her by a picture her future son gave him before his mission.

"I was on a mission, I remembered Lt. Reese brother had your picture with him for good luck. He never told me your name. I thought it was nothing until I saw your picture on the news of a prink gone wrong on the highway of LA. I put one and one together and I figured it out it was you." Seen explained as she looked at her watch. It was already ten o'clock at night.

Hearing her explanation, Sarah thought she was right about the highway incident of Seen recognizing her from when they first met. She slightly smiled, remembering the picture future John gave his father as his way of finding her and saving her from the first machine.

"Ehh…I have a favor?" Seen stepped closer to her. "Can I get a ride home?"

Oddly but amused for some reason, Sarah smiled. "Sure."

* * *

Stopping the jeep at a corner, nervous and uneasy, Sarah scanned the neighborhood where Seen have been living. If Sarah was a normal parent she was would have been terrified of Seen's life living in a neighborhood such as this. Trash on the streets; abandon small business boarded up as most of the glass windows were broken. Graffiti colored almost every other building in the entire block as she knew what some of them meant by the significant painted color. Turf colors of gangs plastered everywhere as this put Sarah on edge. Turf wars meant trouble.

"You live around here?" Sarah asked surprised.

"Yeah," said Seen in a loaf manner. "What's wrong with it?"

Sarah glanced at the young girl bizarre as if oblivious from the picture she was watching. "I'm afraid if I open my door, bullets will fly at me."

"Please…that only happens in movies." Seen chuckled as she stepped out of the car looking at her apartment a block down the street.

Sarah followed her out of the car quickly looking at ever corner of the block. Standing on one of the corners, suspicious young men in baggy clothing were looking at them. Sarah made sure not to make eye contact with the men or they might start trouble. She had some schooling on turf war body language from her past life, looking directly into their eyes was a big offender.

"Sarah what's wrong? This is a good neighborhood. The people are really protective about there neighborhood around here." Seen said smiling at her.

Gun fire was heard in an alley as this made Sarah duck for cover behind the car. Sarah looked down the alleyway as two men were fleeing a scene, running blazing fast down the alley like track stars.

"Sometimes it's a nice neighborhood." Seen said unaffected by the gun fire and started to walk towards her broken down apartment building.

Sarah wondered if Seen acknowledge the danger around here or did she think this was a game.

Stopping her pace, Seen saw three black SUV vehicles rear around the corner and pull up to her apartment entrance door vigorously. Doors fly open as eight men in black clothing, having the letter FBI snitched on there bullet proof vest stormed the building quickly.

Seen looked at her apartment confused. "What are the odds that the FBI would invade your apartment building near the middle of the night?"

Standing next to the young girl, for once, Sarah was speechless to answer that question.

"Do you have an extra room where I can stay for the night?" Seen asked as Sarah looked at her oddly.

In a van sitting across from the building on the other side of the road in the north direction, the man that was at the ITT Technology falsely portraying Seen's cousin, was looking at his men frustrated and furious of the FBI interference. He took out his cell phone and called his employer.

"We have a problem."


	7. The Fly’s Trap Part 1

**Chapter 7- The Fly's Trap Part. 1**

Acquiring his books for school and placing them in his back pack, John felt reassured this morning that his life wasn't slipping away from him again. His protector was back and functioning, like the old Cameron that saved him in 2007, and Skynet didn't end up killing the engineer before they could reach the person. For once he felt they acquired a useful member on the team that could possible build them better weapons like the plasma gun they used before they time jumped. John hope the engineer could build it less then nine months. From his hectic life they may need the weapon built by tomorrow.

However, judging from her attitude, John noticed that Seen was different from Derek. Her mind set wasn't like his uncle methods in destroying ever last machine. Her comment in defending Cameron from Derek's out-lashing before, made John wonder what she really thought about the machines. Was it like his theory, that all machines are not evil or was she ordered to reprogram Cameron because his future self said so?

Walking down the steps, John saw his protector looking out the window as he smirked. His protector was surely back being the un-restless watch dog. About to head outside, he saw Cameron looking at something specifically. This caught his interest of what she was staring at as he quickly surveillance the house that nobody was around.

"She's outside."

Startled and embarrassed she noticed, forgetting that she was very observant to her surroundings, John looked at his protector.

"Huh?"

"She likes the sky." Cameron said.

Confused by her comment, John walked over to his protector. "What?"

John stopped at the window and finally understood her words. The engineer was outside gazing at the morning sky. Judging by her focus, she was deep in thought. Strange, he wanted to know what she was pondering about, the future or the surprise order that Cameron gave to her yesterday. Another thing that struck him as John remembered Cameron's conversation yesterday, how old was she. She looked to young, maybe near his age to be a Sergeant. How old was children required to fight in the war against the machines, John questioned.

Nervous, John cleared his throat. "Do you know…a lot about her in the future?"

"Yes," answered Cameron. "Sergeant Seen Watanabe assigned to company ERT Division Eleven under General Neil. Excel as a weapon specialist, computer engineer and your future self assigned her to be my teacher."

"Teacher?" John chuckled. To him, Cameron was still a lost child of trying to blend in with the public. "What she teach you?"

Cameron gave him a blank stare from his snicker. "To not be seen, to become a ghost."

Oddly looking at his protector by that comment, John was unsure what she meant. Was it for her to learn to blend in with humans or something else entirely different?

* * *

Placing gloves on their hands, Ellison and Madison walked into there suspects apartment watching their team inspect the place thoroughly. If they were apartment inspectors, the building would have been shut down. Every turn they went, there were violations everywhere. Ellison looked around the poorly maintained apartment. Paint pealing off, kitchen looked ancient, old green furniture which looked like it just came off the street; the place looked like a busted up cheap motel.

"What little girl would live around here?" Ellison asked.

He saw the two windows in the living room area were ducked typed. This was the first he seen in an investigation from a minor posing as a college student. He saw one of his men started to peel off each tape hoping to find finger prints since they didn't have any files on the girl to identify her with.

"Because of the high crime rate in the neighborhood," said Madison as she picked up a comic book on a small kitchen table and started to speed read through it. "If you're running from the law, it's a perfect place to hide. Cops could care less of what they see or hear around here, sad really. When cops don't even care, it makes our job even more difficult."

"Judging by the appearance of this place its been used recently, college textbook are over there," said Ellison as he stared at a large wooded bookshelf near a wall which he thought was odd to have in the apartment such as this. "She'll be back. They always do. We should stake the place out, just in case."

After one of the investigators took off the tape on the windows, sunlight shined into the once gloomy apartment. Madison walked over to the window and glanced at the top of the building across the street. Her cell phone rings in her jacket pocket. She takes it out and answers it.

"Okay, I will be there." Madison said as she closed her cell phone. "Well, Ellison I guess you're the first to volunteer for the job."

"What?" Ellison looked confused.

"I've been called in on one of my other cases I've been investigating."

"How many cases are you working on?" Ellison asked curious.

Madison walked towards the door and stopped.

"Just one." She smiled as her partner still puzzled by her answer. "Report anything unusual and don't engage if she comes."

"I think I can handle one little girl."

"A little girl with deadly guns," Madison stated. "Besides I'm responsible for you. Watch yourself. This neighborhood doesn't like cops…especially cops in nice suits."

Giving her partner a warning, Madison left the apartment. Ellison chuckled to himself and started to help the investigation team before they cleared the premises.

* * *

Walking into a large white room filled with racks of computer equipment of the highest sophisticated technology to date, a group of fourteen members assigned to the new project called Babylon; Weaver saw her new team dissecting the Turk's A.I. platform. It pleased her to watch collective minds working on a single purpose to strive for complete perfection. In her opinion, the Turk was going to raise the bar far beyond what they think at this early stage of development. People all around the world will be begging for their new technology.

A young nerdy slim looking man, in his late twenties, bushy brown hair with a name badge saying Brian Pitt saw his employer come into the room. He stood up from his chair and walked over to her, always feeling nervous around her.

"Hello Mrs. Weaver." Brian said politely as this alerted the others in the room working on the highly anticipated project she instructed them to complete.

Weaver walked over to the young man and then stopped in front of a rack of computers surrounding the Turk. The Turk had wires connected to it which was connected to many large servers. The information from the servers was disbursed to ten computers connected around it that analyzed the information to the work stations.

"How's the Turk progressing, Mr. Pitt?" Weaver asked as she crossed her arms staring at her new pet project.

"Coming along just fine Mrs. Weaver," said Brian smiling at her of the enjoyment in working on this project. "The A.I. platform of the Turk is learning fairly well and adjusting to the new wide spectrum of applications were introducing to it everyday. It's learning to assimilate the difference between organic and non-organics as test to tell us if it can determine the difference. Whoever thought of building this was extremely good. I wish the person was here then they could give us a little more insight of how he or she customize the…"

Weaver looked at him emotionless, knowing fully well what happened to the original designer of the Turk. This stopped Brian from talking uneasy by his employer glare.

"I didn't come here for all that, Mr. Pitt," said Weaver. "Will the first prototype be ready next month for the I. Q. party?"

"We're not sure, ma'am. I don't think we should rush the learning process of the Turk." Brian informed her thinking of the consequence if they push the process.

"Mr. Pitt, I need something to _wow_ them next month. Make it happen." Weaver said flatly.

"Yes ma'am." Brian said.

Weaver walked out of the room, leaving the crew on her project. Her decision worried Brian on where the Babylon project was heading towards as he looked at the other team members having the same doubt as him.

* * *

Putting his back pack in his locker, not needing it for lunch period, John actually wanted this day to end quickly for once. Unsure why, he felt excited as this day was dragging on for his patience.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Baum MIA in class yesterday."

John heard a voice behind his locker in which he smirked knowing who it was. He closed his locker staring at his perky new friend chewing gum and smiling at him.

"Hey." John said.

"Is everything okay with your sister?" asked Riley concerned.

"Oh yeah," said John as this alerted him of the classroom situation. She must have seen the entire incident with Cameron and him in the classroom while everybody was paying attention to the teacher. "She has seizures sometimes when she fell pretty hard. The doctors replaced apart of her brain with a steel plate."

"Ouch," said Riley feeling sympathy for his sister's pain. "Must have been a nasty fall."

Riley smiled at him. "You're sweet for taking care of your little sister."

Riley always liked guys that cared for others and not on themselves for once.

They walked down the hallway as John smiled at her about that comment.

"Well, she's my only sister so my mother worries about her health which comes down to me to make her not worry." John replied.

"That's nice. Cameron and your mother are very lucky to have you around."

"You have no idea." John chuckled, thinking about his destiny, hoping to keep that a secret from her forever.

"So John, my friends and I are going to get something to eat and it's not cafeteria food this time. One of my friends lost a bet to me and they're treating me to lunch. So you want to come?" Riley asked hoping he says yes to spend more time with him.

John hesitate about her question. Though he really wanted to go but his mother said to stay with Cameron to make sure she doesn't have any mishaps like yesterday.

"I shouldn't go. My sister, she might worry about me." John said actually telling the truth this time. His protector might kill somebody if he was missing.

"Come on. Morris can keep her company during lunch period. It's only forty-five minutes. Besides Morris really likes your sister. All he talks about in class is the prom and her meeting his mother. Morris maybe a small guy but his heart is gold. He'll take care of her. Please." Riley showed her puppy eyes pleading with him to come.

John blushed smiling brightly as Morris could keep Cameron company until he got back.

"Since you're begging…Okay."

"Okay cool. Come on." Riley said excited that he said yes.

Both the teenagers walk towards the doors that lead outside to the parking lot.

* * *

At Wendy's, John was sitting next to Riley feeling out of place being around normal teenagers as their conversation sometimes sounded foreign to him. If it wasn't about the future, guns and training, conversations among others made him feel like an alien. Three of Riley's friends were having discussions about afternoon games, parties and prom. John kept quiet the entire time eating his burger and fries, actually hoping they don't ask him personal questions. However, the way one of Riley's friends was looking at him, curious, he may not be able to slide away from the questions as he hoped.

"So Riley, who are you going to the prom with? Pick a lucky guy yet?" asked her friend named Emily who was eyeing John the entire trip like a platter of food.

"No, not yet. Still looking." Riley answered.

"You keep looking, you're going by yourself girl." Another friend said named Mandy.

"So John," Emily eyed him. "Going to the prom with anybody?"

Feeling nervous, John sat up in his chair. He looked at Riley and then at her.

"I'm not really sure yet. I'll see when it comes around." John said and gave a kind smile to his answer. He didn't lie about his answer. In fact he wasn't sure if he would be alive around that time.

"Hey, your problem is solved," said Emily as John looked puzzled. "Riley's free and you're free so that make you both not free."

"Emily." Riley looked at her surprised and blushed that she would say that directly to John.

"What? Trying to get you a date, _excuse_ me." Emily said in a loaf manner and ate her fires.

John looked away humored about Emily's direct attitude.

"Don't pay her any mind." Riley said softly leaning towards him as she shook her head blushing that her friend would ask that question.

"It's okay." John said

First time in a long time, John felt accepted in the normal crowd for once. Maybe coming with Riley was a good idea as he knew Cameron wouldn't approve of it from what she told him yesterday in English class about Riley. He thought he needed to start thinking for himself independently. If he was supposed to be the savior of the world, he needed to start doing things his way or he's not a leader. If only he could tell his smothering mother that his life would be much easier to maintain.

John ate a fry and then started to look around the restaurant watching other families enjoy there meal which brought some light to his heart for some reason.

Surprised, looking in the distance outside the window somebody caught his attention. The new member of their team, Seen, was power walking down the street in a hurry. John looked at Riley and her friends as they were talking among themselves. Oblivious to his sudden change of expression, John looked back outside. He wondered what she was doing in the area. John noticed her constant gaze watching her surroundings carefully as if she was being followed. He watched the engineer go down a stairway underground leading directly into subway.

Unsure what to do, John conscious wanted to know of Seen's suspicious actions. Was she being followed and she needed help. If she did then she was going to need backup. He did owe her his life, actually twice for saving Cameron, and would like to return the favor. Praying that his mind was jumping to conclusion, he hoped it was a false alarm. If Seen was in trouble, a long detailed report would have to be given to his mother as she somehow always find out about his mishaps.

John had to move quickly on this or he would lose her. He stood up as Riley noticed.

"You okay?" Riley asked.

"Yeah…I have to get something at the store close by while I'm around here. I have free period after this so I'll take the bus back, okay." John explained quickly looking out the window hoping she bought it.

"Okay then…I can come with you." She offered, not wanting to feel he was being left out of the group.

"It's okay. I'll see you in class okay."

"Sure."

John immediately left the food restaurant as Riley watched him leave.

"Oh hurray up and kiss him already." Emily said perking up her lips making fun of Riley's secret crush.

"Shut up, okay." Riley smirked rolling her eyes and then ate her hamburger.

* * *

Quickly making his way down the steps and into the subway, John searched the entire platform. Luckily for him it wasn't crowded from the time of day which made it easier. He walked around the platform and then saw her in the distance. Cautiously, John made sure nothing was out of the ordinary that was following her.

He saw Seen swipe a pass through and made her way through the other side of the platform.

Unlike Seen, John empty out his pocket, filled with change from his lunch and put them into the machine granting him access to pass on the other side. Practicing his following skills taught by his mother, John stayed at a safe distance to stay hidden.

A train stopped before Seen as she aboard it. Still keeping his presence concealed, John boarded the next passenger train. Standing up, he kept his eyes focused on Seen the entire time as she was sitting in a seat looking the other way.

John wondered where she was going. It was far from the house and this train ride only made it further away from his school. He hoped he would make it back before the end of his free period. He didn't need a telephone call from the school to let his mother know he was cutting class.

Sleeping in his car across the street from his suspect apartment, Agent Ellison has not acquiring sleep since he came back from San Diego. He's been running on coffee and sugar snacks for the past twenty four hours. Because of his human faulty, Seen walked right pass his car from across the street and straight into the apartment Ellison was suppose to be watching.

Cautiously, looking around her apartment hallway, Seen put on black gloves to conceal her fingerprints and then took out her keys. A quick glance down the hallway again, Seen placed the key into the keyhole and opened her apartment door.

Walking inside, Seen accessed the damage the FBI done to her apartment as she closed the door. Right off the start, she noticed the sun beaming into her apartment. She cursed to herself that they took off her duck tape and which she hated open windows. Her awareness went up as she had no time to play. Her objective was to acquire what she needed and leave before unwanted trouble come charging down her hallways on both sides, blocking her exists. One of the few things General Neil taught her was never be captured by the enemy, once that happens take a gun and shot yourself in the head to save other lives. One of the scary and efficient tactics General Neil trained her when facing the machines.

Seen paused, as she walked to her kitchen table. Annoyed, she noticed her comic books were missing. She was pissed wondering what police force does that. She exhaled in frustration as she wasn't finish reading them.

Shaking her head, she had to get focus on the task at hand. She went to her bedroom and went into her closet. A large black duffle bag was lying down in the corner. She picked it up and went into the living room, stopping at the wooden book shelf next to her TV. Seen went to the right of it and used her strength, as she pushed the bookshelf a few inches to the left.

Coming out of a shower with a towel rapped around his waist, the young man that was impersonating as Seen cousin, was coming into the bedroom in his apartment. His clothes were laid out on his bed as well as his laptop, having information on current killings in the Middle East. Quickly, he stopped in his tracks as looked at a beeper type device on his dresser as it was flashing red.

"What the hell?" He whispered and went to his window.

Across from his apartment, using the place as cover in finding his prize money, he saw Seen in her apartment moving a bookshelf. His eyes widen in shock as he cursed to himself. Fumbling and stumbling in his apartment he quickly got dressed wasting no time.

Under a minute in getting dressed, the man went under his bed and took out a large black bag. Placing it on the bed, he quickly unzipped it. An almost disassembled LT-M4 tactical assault rifle was taken out of the bag. Hurrying, the man took out others parts of the gun and began to piece it back together like a jigsaw puzzle, trained to do this in less then a minute from his combat training.

Once assembled, he placed a silencer and laser scope on the gun. He took the black bag, grabbed the little accessories in his room and went out the door, slinging the LT-M4 around his shoulder from the strap. He jogged to the end of the hallway and went through a fire escape exit door. Power walking his way up three floors to reach the top of the apartment building, he placed an ear piece in his ear and then place a clip in his hand gun, ready to go at any time if needed.

Opening the door as a gush of wind greeted him blowing in the north direction, the man reached to the top. He walked towards the edge of the building as his apartment building towered above Seen's building by a few stories in height. He readies his weapon as he finally found his target and anxiously ready to acquire it.

Behind the bookshelf, a secret compartment was revealed, which was actually used to be the closet to the original design to the apartment. Seen turned on a light as the once closet was transformed into a mini gun shop. Three different assault rifles weapons were mounted on the wall being standard addition used in the military. Grenades, smoke bombs, handguns and other highly technical devices were laid out on the shelves she made in the closet.

She smiled as the FBI didn't find her secret stash of arsenal, learning to never hide important things in plan site. Quickly, she started to place the weapons into her bag and dismantling the assault rifles hastily.

After taking several minutes to fully gather her weapons, she grabbed a small black box and placed it into the bag. She looked at her watch as it was time to leave. However, footsteps outside her apartment caught her attention as she halted her movements. She walked outside of her closet and quietly around the bookshelf. She thought maybe it was one of her crazy neighbor, but the footsteps stopped right in front of her door.

This alerted Seen as she gently placed her bag on the floor. She unzipped her bag slowly, not to cause any sound, and grabbed a 9mm handgun. She looked at the door knob as it started to jiggle as Seen didn't panic as her military training was coming into effect. She only heard one footstep and which the person had to be alone. However, unnecessary attention was what she didn't need at this point. Digging in her bag she grabbed a silencer and attached it to her handgun. Whoever this foolish person was she had to take them out quietly.

Guardedly, she tip toed her way to the side of the door silently like a cat, making little noise as possible. The door knob made a click as the door was pushed opened slowly hearing the creaking noise from the old door. Seen glanced down at the floor as a sneaker stepped into her apartment door, and then half a body.

This was her chance to attack. Using her right leg, she hit the back of the door with a powerful kick. The person's body slammed into the side of the door from the sheer force. Seen grabbed the door knob and quickly went to the door entrance. Without even looking and going on instinct and adrenalin, she did a frontal kick to the person's chest as they went backwards straight to the opponent side of the wall in the hallway.

Seen raised her gun about to shot the person in the limbs to immobilize her opponent but her eyes widen, surprised by who she kicked.

"John!"

She placed her gun in her right hand seeing John out of breath trying to stand up from her double attack. She went to his aid.

"What are you doing here?!" She asked as she looked down both sides of the hallway making sure he wasn't followed.

"Nice…to…meet you too." John said still trying to catch his breath. It felt like bat just hit him in the chest from the pain of just her kick.

"Sorry. You really shouldn't sneak up on people." She apologized.

Seen helped him off the floor and took him into her apartment.

John looked around her apartment but held his chest knowing it was going to have a bruise mark the next day or the next hour judging by the force from that attack.

Many questions ran through her mind of what he was doing here and how did he find her apartment. Was she slipping that bad or was John good at following, she asked herself. However, one question did come to mind as she noticed he wasn't with a particular person or machine.

"Where's Cameron?" Seen asked curious.

"Why?" John said finally looking at her straight.

"The reason why yourself sent her back was to protect you. Not only the fact that you're talking to me, but it's one o'clock in the afternoon. Unless you have an early day, you're supposed to be in school." Seen explained, now she started to panic. She knew how the school system worked in this time. If a child skipped class the teacher would report it and the main office would call their parent.

From first glance, John's mother wasn't the person to cross when angry and she didn't have to test her to determine that, Seen thought.

John felt irritated by her comment. "Look, I don't need a babysitter every five minutes I walk, okay."

Seen shook her head as he just didn't understand his predicament or hers for that matter. She walked over to her black bag as they had to leave before unwanted visitors paid her a visit.

"Babysitter or not, I have to get you back to school before Cameron holds your school hostage until she finds you," said Seen. John chuckled as that was ridiculous. Seen seriously looked at him. "Why are you laughing? I'm being serious."

Seen zipped up her black bag and grabbed the straps. She picked it up and walked over to John. He looked at her puzzled wondering what was in it.

"Ehh…Seen is it," said John calling her name which made her looked at him. "Look, we only met for a few seconds but I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself if people wouldn't cuddle me like a child all the time."

Seen smirked in which he just proved her point. "You're right John, where not children but teenagers which make parents freak out even more. These are the years when teenagers do stupid things."

She kept her eyes directed at him as John felt annoyed and looked towards the ground. Why can't get away from everybody telling him what to do, he asked himself.

"I need to get you back to school. Come on." Seen said ending the discussion. Too much time has past and they needed to leave this place. She bent down and grabbed her black bag.

How the situation turned into this, John thought. Here he thought she was in trouble by her paranoid looks but in the end she wanted to get some clothing from her apartment since she's staying with them. It was a waste of time as he should have stayed with the group.

About to head out of the apartment, John looked curious at the back of Seen's head. A small red dot caught his attention. He lifted up his hand over where the dot was as it became visible on the back of his hand. His eyes widen in fear.

"GET DOWN!!" John shouted and quickly tackled Seen to the ground.

Silent Bullets, sounding like pallets, quickly fired off hitting the location where Seen was standing hitting the wall. Looking frantically around, Seen was confused where the bullets was coming from. She looked behind her at the window which was the sole reason why she covered it before. A small image of a person on the other side of the building caught her vision. She cursed to herself.

She let go of her bag and grabbed John's jacket making him move. More bullets were coming at them as the bullets hit the walls, wooded floor, and the furniture causing debris to fly into both their eyes, blinding their vision to see in the distance.

They were sitting ducks as Seen had to think fast. She needed a diversion to get John out of the line of fire as that was her only priority at this point. She saw her bag a few feet from them. What she needed was in her bag to create the diversion. She grabbed John and forcefully pushed him in the chest as he slid into the kitchen floor harshly.

Seen was about to grab her bag but bullet fire stopped her as she had to quickly divert her path into her bedroom, further away from her bag and even further from John. Seen looked around her bedroom, but diverted her eyes to the floor seeing sunlight coming into her room. She double cursed to herself as she looked at the window in her bedroom. Without even thinking, she dashed to her bathroom as bullets came through her bedroom window. She jumped into the bathtub and lay crunched up as her body couldn't fit into the bathtub of its size. Luckily for her the bullets where stopped from the old fashion concrete bathtub or her body would have been riddled with bullets.

Breathing heavily, terrified of what just happened in the past ten seconds, John hid behind the stove which was away from the shooter, as it provided the perfect cover. However, he looked to his right noticing Seen wasn't with him. He didn't have time to leisurely look around the apartment or his head will get popped off clean. He was pinned down and he had nowhere to go. He scolded himself again as he just should of stayed with the group.

John jumped, frighten when he felt rumbling in his jacket pocket. His cell phone rung as he frantically tried to find it patting himself down like a police officer to a suspect. He found it, which should have been easier to locate if his nerves weren't jumping around, and picked it up. He prayed it wasn't Cameron and definitely not his mother. Maybe bullets' coming from a silencer gun was better for him in taking this call.

Cautiously, he answered calming his voice down to normal. "Hello."

"John you okay?" Seen asked stranded in the bathtub.

John felt relieved that she was still breathing. "Yeah, I'm pinned down. Where are you at?"

"In the bathroom behind the kitchen wall in the bathtub," said Seen as she looked at the ceiling. "He's focused on me. I can't move anywhere…but you can."

"What?" John asked as he was in the same predicament as she.

"The black bag I was carrying, can you get to it?"

John looked to his right seeing the bag, however it was in the middle of the room, where the shooter would have a field day with him if he retrieved it.

"No, I can't. The shooter will shoot me."

Seen touched her head cursing to herself. She had to think of a plan quick or John and her was dead.

Slowly, noticing the shooting had stopped for over a minute, John cautiously poked his head out looking outside the window. Puzzled, John saw the shooter touch something on his ear as his lips was moving. John hope what the guys was saying wasn't going to happen.

"I think he's talking to somebody." John said.

Seen didn't need a full description of what the shooter was doing. It was part of his plan from the beginning. His main goal wasn't to shot her but to make sure she didn't leave the apartment.

"He's calling for back up. We got five maybe six minutes tops," said Seen as she was done figuring out a plan to escape. She hoped John could execute it correctly or they're done in five minutes.

"John, listen to me okay. I need you to follow exactly what I say."

"Okay."

"You see the oven near you?"

John looked behind him leaning right on it. "Yeah."

"The gas line is behind it, you can clearly see it. Your hands can go right behind it. I need you to cut it."

John looked around and saw kitchen utensils on the counter spilled over from the gun fire. He placed his phone on the ground not wanting anything in his way to acquire what he needed. He mustard up his courage and quickly went for the knife on the counter across from him and went back over to the stove. Just like she said it was easy to reach as he slid his hand in the corner and pulled the stove gas line towards him to make it easier to cut it. He took the knife and began moving it back and fourth rapidly. Soon a big gash was cut as he immediately smelled the gas coming out.

John picked his phone up. "Okay, it's done."

"Alright good. The microwave is above you next to the stove. Go near the bottom of the sink you'll see chemical products. Put it into it and put anything metal in there as well."

John thought about her words and then the part of him cutting the gas line just clicked into his head.

"Wait, what? Are you trying to cause an explosion?" John asked as she thought her plan was crazy.

"Yes."

"While I'm still here?"

"The refrigerator will save you."

John looked at the refrigerator in front of him. It wasn't the new stylish refrigerator one would buy from Best Buy or Home Depot, but an old fashion one that could stop the power from a shotgun. Now John started to understand her plan. He followed her instructions doing exactly what she told him, still being careful not to get shot.

He put chemical products, as some were flammable, as he also put in the kitchen utensil in it as well and set the microwave for three minutes. John crawled on the floor and made his way to the refrigerator. Opening it, he noticed it was a few things in it. He pulled out the steel trays, throwing them on the ground. He looked at the microwave hearing noise of sparks. Hurrying, hoping the microwave didn't jump the gun before he could finish, John took out the last steel tray and got himself into the refrigerator.

Violent sparks started to fly inside the microwave as Seen closed her ears ready to hear the loud bang.

As it hit one minute, the microwave exploded in which the sparks causes a chain reaction, from the gas in the air. A louder explosion was created as large flames came from around the kitchen area. The loud bang shatters all the glasses from her apartment, causing a shake in the building.

Surprised, the shooter zoomed in on the scope to figure out what happened. Whatever it did, smoke filled the apartment as debris was everywhere. He cursed to himself.

Startled from the explosion, Ellison woke up from in his car. He looked around frantic wondering what happen. Who got shot? Madison was right this neighborhood was bad, he thought. But smoke from an apartment building caught his attention. In disbelief, his suspect apartment had smoke coming out of it. He quickly got out of the car, and took out his gun, puzzled of what was going on.

Hearing skid tires from a car coming around the corner, Ellison saw a black van pulled up directly in front of the apartment building. The door's to the van flung open as six men came out halting automatic weapons in there hands as they stormed the building. Ellison eyes couldn't believe it; it was just like the San Diego police officer said 'right out of a movie'.

He needed to call for back up. His little pistol wasn't going to do anything against automatic machine guns. He mine as while go in with a bullseye on his jacket and say take the first shot. Making his way back to his car and he grabbed his cell phone on his dash board. His fingers quickly dialed numbers but kept his eyes on the apartment building the entire time.

Inside the refrigerator, John held his head. He wasn't positioned vertical like before as he felt the shift of his body horizontal. The refrigerator must have fallen over from the explosion, he thought. He cursed to himself thinking he maybe put to much chemical products in the microwave.

He heard rustlings from the door as his eyes widen. How much time past? Was the back up here already? Crap they were screwed as he didn't make it in time.

The refrigerator door was pulled open. John thought he was going to see a gun pointed at his face, but it was Seen holding out her hand for him to take it having a white cloth covered around her mouth.

"Come on!" She yelled out.


	8. The Fly's Trap Part 2

**Chapter 7- The Fly Trap Part. 2**

John grabbed her hand quickly stepping out of the crapped small area and looked around. Pulling his jacket sleeve up to his mouth, he made sure to not inhale any of the deadly fumes into his lungs. Seen quickly went to her black bag as she looked at the window as the smoke provided the perfect cover.

She picked up the bag and placed it on her back like a backpack. Even though it weighted a tone, but she had to manage. These were weapons she couldn't leave behind or she have to start from scratch again.

With her gun already drawn, this was where the fun truly began. Seen opened the door as John followed right behind her heading down the hallway. Questions ran through John's mind of who was after them. It wasn't the machines as they would have just kick down the door and started spraying. The shooter was more human in trying to kill its prey cautiously unlike the machines. Looking at Seen's calm expression, she obviously knew who was after them. Unlike his nerves all over the place, she was in control of knowing where she was going. Now he started to see why she was a Sergeant in the Resistance Fighter's ranks.

Seen hurried to the end of the hallway as she heard multiple footsteps heading up the stairway. She looked down as they were almost to her floor. She looked at John as they started to run the opposite way quickly. Back up had arrived and in full force.

Looking behind him, Seen was right. John cursed to himself as the enemy had assault rifles and he had nothing in his hand, just his luck. He looked at Seen's backpack wondering what was in their. If she had a M16, it would be nice to pull it out at this time.

"Freeze!" One man yelled down the hallway.

Seen drew her gun towards them and fired off six shots. Quickly the men took cover, bending down low to the floor. John ran in front of her as the men fired their guns at them. John pushed the emergency exit door open on the opposite side of the building as Seen ran through it and closed it quick. The bullets hit the rusty steel door which made Seen and John step away from it hugging the walls, not trusting the door's capable strength to stop the bullets.

"I guess they are trying to kill us." Seen said surprised that they would fire at them.

She looked down the steps as the area was clear.

"Hurry down the steps! Don't stop!" She instructed John as he quickly headed down the eight flights of stairs. Seen took off her bag and dropped it over the railing. A loud thumb was heard at the bottom as Seen followed John down the steps, running at a much faster pace then him, as she skipped a few steps closing the gap.

The emergency exist door swing open as a man kicked it. The men looked down the steps seeing their target below them. One man takes his F90 and fires down the stairs as the bullets hits the railing and steps around their target. Luckily for John and Seen, the steps were to close together to not get a perfect shot as they hugged the wall avoiding the bullets.

Seen aimed her gun at the gunner as this time she wasn't going to pretend to miss them like previously. Calm and using her sniper training abilities, she aimed her gun and fired. The bullet landed directly on contact as the man firing the F90 went down, grabbing his leg in pain. Blood seep through his blue jeans as John looked on astonished.

He looked at Seen as he noticed her aim has changed from before. John wondered was the bullets she fired before was warning shots. That's when he realized she wasn't aiming to kill them but to slow them down to avoid killing them.

"Keep moving!" Seen shouted as they both continued down the stairway.

"Forget me! Get the girl!" The man whom Seen shot yelled out, ordering the others to follow the target.

Finally reaching the bottom floor, Seen quickly picked up her black bag and placed it back over her back. She used a strap to click it tightly around her chest to not fall over from the pounds of weight inside from her weapons.

They both ran out another emergency door as John looked both ways. It was clear as he started to run in the east direction.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Seen grabbed his arm stopping his pace.

"Not that way…this way." She guided him down the west direction of the alley as she looked at her digital watch as it read 1:20.

"Yes, yes I'm going to need back up now!" Ellison yelled on the phone looking down the street.

His jaw dropped as his eyes widen, stunned. Running across the street, he caught a glimpse of the suspect he's been trying to find. However, that wasn't what surprised him the most. It was whom she was running with; it was what the machine sole mission in traveling back in time was for, as he saw John Connor.

What was he doing with his suspect? Was it an accident? No, it couldn't be an accident as being in the FBI, things happen for a reason.

He was about to chase after them until he stopped. A black tented BMW car pulled up to an apartment building across the street. A young man, carrying a small duffle bag came out the building's front door. He looked around the area and went inside the car. The car drove off down the street in a hurry.

Ellison was baffled and then looked up at Seen's apartment wondering did the man ignite the explosion. "What the hell is going on?"

* * *

Staring at a chair repeatedly the entire period in history class, Cameron was uneasy of John's unknown where about. A shoot out hasn't erupted in the school which was a good thing because her kind loves to blow things up; she wondered did he cut class. What was the purpose of it? The only way she was going to get an answer was ask who he's been hanging out with in the past two periods. The bell ranged as it was a perfect time to start her investigation. She had to find John or his mother was going to give her an ear full.

She quickly walked down the hallway scanning every student that went by. Then she found one person that could give her some answers to her question. Stopping at his locker like a robotic soldier, Cameron stared at her future prom date.

Morris slowly looked to his right as Cameron gave him an impassive stare.

"Hey Cameron." He gave her a clueless look but a bit nervous as it was unexpected for John's sister to be at his locker.

"Have you seen John?" She asked flatly.

"No. He didn't even come to auto shop today." Morris said putting his remaining books in his locker.

Cameron saw a familiar face in the distance who she told John to stay away from. She left Morris with a bewildered look as she walked down the other side of the hallway.

Digging into her locker, Riley grabbed a book and placed it in her bag getting to her last class for the day. She closed her locker, but was startled.

"Jesus, you scared me!" Riley said wondering where she came from.

"I'm looking for my brother John, have you seen him?" Cameron asked bluntly.

Riley gave her a worried look. "He didn't get back yet?"

Her answer put Cameron on edge as she stepped forward coming closer to the young girl. Only Riley's book in her arm separated the two girls from touching one another.

"Back from where?" Cameron asked.

Her stare and proximity to her body scared Riley as she stepped back like a mouse trapped in a cage with a tiger.

* * *

Coming down the subway quickly, Seen saw two men still pursuing them as they were close by. John and her weave through the crowd of people trying to get to the next train scheduled to leave at any second.

Seen pressures John to pick up his pace as she moves him forward in front of her. The two men behind concealed their weapons inside their jackets to not cause a commotion and followed right behind them on their heels.

John and Seen burst onto the correct train platform and darted towards the train in their site. The train conductor recorded audio makes its last announcements to board the train. John cursed to himself as they weren't going to make it. Looking to his right, he saw Seen run past him at incredible speed like a professional track star as she went to the train first.

Before the doors could close, Seen stepped through it, jamming it which forced to open again. It was the opportunity they need as John quickly boarded the train bumping into Seen to stop his pace. They both looked behind them as the men were inches away from boarding the train. The automated system said doors closing. Almost in their grasp, one man reached out but was stopped by titanium doors as he ran right into them.

He saw his target just inches away as he banged on the door harshly, furious that he couldn't acquire it. His outrage brought attention to the passengers as one guy snicker about it, finding it amusing.

The deadly glare John saw in their pursers eyes, for once wasn't directed towards him, but at Seen. He wondered what she did to them exactly. Whatever it was, the train ride was long enough to explain herself, John thought.

One of the men pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number quickly. "Nicholas, she jumped the train. Get the men to the next station now!"

"On it." said Nicholas that portrayed Seen's false cousin. In a black car with his other partner driving, he typed on his laptop quickly getting the train routes using the internet.

* * *

Seeing students come out of the school, Sarah was waiting in the jeep for her son and his metal protector. She knew she was early but today she just wanted to get out of the house. She would have stayed if anybody was in the house. Derek was keeping tabs on Cyberdyne as their new engineer left the house telling her she needed to do something. Sarah wasn't sure what that meant but she hoped it wasn't too dangerous. She knew the engineer was different than Derek and far different in what she imagined the engineer would be. They couldn't afford trouble at this point. Maybe she should have explained that more clearly with the young girl. Young adults tend to do stupid things.

Puzzled, looking ahead as she sat up in her car seat, Sarah saw Cameron heading her way. Sarah looked at her watch saying half past one and then back at the metal machine. Cameron came to the passenger side, opened the door and went into the car.

"John's missing." Cameron said point-blank, not even looking at Sarah.

"What!" Sarah shouted as her eyes widen in shock. She prayed she heard Cameron's words incorrectly.

"John left at lunch and never came back."

"I thought you were watching him Cameron! How did you lose him?!" Sarah asked screaming furiously at her.

"John does these things." Cameron finally looked at her.

"That's your excuse?" Sarah asked as her words weren't comforting at all.

Sarah started to dial his cell phone number.

"He's not picking up his cell phone." Cameron assured her.

"We need to find him!"

"I'm well aware of the problem. We should head to Wendy's on Oarlock Street as our first stop." Cameron said monotone.

Not wanting to argue anymore, Sarah started up the car and drove away, praying that her son was safe or Cameron was getting dumped into hot melting lava to end her existence.

* * *

Seen moved to the back of the passenger train as she was looking around on the walls of the train. John followed her weaving through the crowd behind her as her large black bag wasn't making it easier. Actually it was making people irritated as John smiled to not make the passengers kill them.

Seen stopped at one of the back exist doors and eyed an emergency alarm to her right. John stood next to her and leans towards her to not cause a scene.

"Who were those guys? Why are they trying to kill you?" John asked still scanning the passenger train making sure nobody looked suspicious.

"The same reason why you're being chased," said Seen not directly staring at him. She walked in front of the emergency alarm clutch behind a plastic covering.

"We have to get off the train before the next stop or they'll put a bullet through both our heads."

Confused, John looked at her wondering did she know what they were traveling on. "How are we going to do that?"

John saw Seen take off one strap around her shoulder and brought the black bag in front, giving her access to open it. She unzipped it halfway and searched through it, moving parts of weapons to her guns. She took out a smoke grenade saying Fat Man II painted on it. John eyes widen seeing that description before and covered his mouth with his sleeve.

Seen pulled the pin on top of it and rolled it to the middle of the floor, landing by a young man's foot. It disbursed quickly as the smoke grenade filled the passenger train. People started to panic as some people were pushing on one another thinking it was a fire or worse a terrorist attack.

Seen hit the emergency alarm which alerted the conductor as red lights went off in each train carts. The conductor quickly stopped the train as the breaks sparked along the rails of the abrupt stop. The sudden stop made the passengers in all five train cart being pulled forward. Some passengers held onto the poles in the middle of the floor, others their seats, while the rare few fell on top of one another on the floor not able to catch their balance in time.

The conductor opened his door but couldn't go any further.

"The third compartment is on fire!" One man shouted seeing the smoke in the distance.

The conductor cursed to himself and went back into his booth. He had no choice at this point and opened all the doors on the train. He called it in quickly on his walkie-talkie of the sudden fire on his train making sure that Central stopped all train rides that could hit his passengers.

The passengers immediately jumped off the train and onto the track, watching both ways to not get hit by another train. John and Seen jumped off the train as John looked around at the chaotic scene as people on his train were coughing and trying to run for cover. Seen grabbed John sleeve jacket making him follow her and away from the scene as quickly as possible.

Nicholas and another guy with him was looking down the tracks waiting for the train to come. He looked at his watch every second wondering why the train was late if it left on time. His partner looked at him knowing something was wrong.

One Guard at the train platform walked by them as Nicholas heard a woman's voice over the walkie-talkie. It was a fire on the Gritten line subway train. The guard picked up the walkie-talkie as he ran up the steps coming towards the Central booth.

Nicholas looked at his partner and both started to run to the end of the platform. They jumped down and drew their weapons, heading towards the direction the train should be coming.

A few minutes in making their way down the train tracks, Nicholas saw the stopped train where their target was on. He cursed to himself and looked around, checking each person in the group quickly. His looked at his partner who was checking each passenger train. Checking one after another, he found each one empty already knowing they lost the target. He shook his head to Nicholas to confirm in finding nothing.

Nicholas smirked as all he could do was laugh at the situation, that neither of his paid combat military trained men couldn't capture one little girl. His employer was not going to be pleased with their failed efforts. Going to her in person was out of the question. He'll tell her over the phone to not end up dead like the others before him.

* * *

Coming into the house in a rush, Sarah saw Derek with a worried look. He gave Cameron a cold stare, who was watching the news station on TV, of the predicament they were in. It never failed how everything always became her fault. It was like a continued loop with her and it pissed him off. He wanted to kill her and hurry it up, he thought.

"Have John called in yet?" Derek asked.

"No nothing." Sarah said in a nervous rack. She looked out the window as it was already dark outside. This wasn't like her son. He would have called in if anything happened to him. Unless…no she had to put that thought in the back of her mind. She hoped her son remembered his training. No, she prayed that her son remembered his training.

"About early afternoon, on 61 Block Street in Los Angeles County, an apartment building caught on fire from a leaked gas line from the gas stove. However, the LAPD police department would have ruled the blast an accident but witness heard gun fire in the apartment building. In the past four years the high crime rate has risen in this neighborhood. In speculation of what the authority think, it was a turf war that got out of hand. This is channel nine news reporting back to you Jim."

Sarah curiously looked at the TV hearing the entire broadcast of the anchor woman. That building and neighborhood, red flags went up in her mind.

"Derek, where's Seen?" Sarah asked still focused on the TV screen.

"I don't know. I haven't seen the Kid since this morning." Derek answered, puzzled as her.

Sarah started to dial Seen's cell phone. Pacing back and fourth waiting for the phone to be picked up, she actually prayed she was with John. She needed something to think that her son was fine or she was going to lose it in a minute.

Her wishful thinking was crushed as Seen wasn't even picking up her phone as well. Now she had double trouble on her plate. Both John and Seen were missing. One could be killed by a machine while the other could be killed in a turf war. She told that _child_ it was a bad idea to be in that hostel neighborhood. She cursed to herself as everyday was a new problem and she wondered how long she could keep this up before she break.

At the entrance of the walkway to the Connor's home, John and Seen stopped as they both looked into the windows of the house. John could see his mother furious expression. He would have called her but Seen insisted not too. This was going to go down ugly and he wished he wasn't here in this particular moment. They took a long time to come back to the house. It was apparently the plan to make sure they weren't being followed by the men Seen wouldn't talk much about.

"Look just let me talk. I'll take the blame." John said looking into the window.

"Your mother will kill you." Seen stated.

"It's my fault she's probably going crazy right now because I should had called in. If I went with the others…"

"It doesn't matter John," said Seen serious. "Your mother probably saw the news. She knows where I live. This is technically my fault. I should have dealt with the problem sooner. Let me take the fall. I've seen protective mothers of this time and it's not pretty. You'll understand later what I mean."

He looked away from her hating himself for this. But it was probably for the best, if she figured out his mother in a short period of time, lying was their best option.

Seen started to walk towards the door as John followed.

Cameron heard footsteps coming towards the front door as she placed the controller on the sofa and went to the door.

Sarah and Derek looked at her action and followed, knowing she heard something. Sarah only hoped it was her son and not a Terminator or the police.

Stepping into the house, Seen and John saw everybody coming towards them in a panic. Before the gauntlet was about to begin, Seen quickly put her black bag on the floor and walked in front of it to hide it from John's mother. She wasn't ready to reveal what was in her party bag.

"Where have you been John?!" Sarah asked almost in a yelling voice as she scornfully eyes Seen. "We kept calling you and you didn't answer?!"

"Because John was with me," said Seen stepping forward trying to bring the heated attention towards her. "And we ran into a little trouble on our way back. We couldn't risk calling you guys or the signal could have been tracked. It's my fault. I'm sorry I took him out of school."

Cameron immediately knew Seen was lying knowing John went with Riley to lunch. How she ended up with him she couldn't figure out. She wondered what the logic in taking the fall for him was. She rather kept her mouth shut until she heard Seen's full story.

"You took him out of school? And what _trouble_ did you run into _Seen_!" Sarah asked coming closer to her ready to kill the girl for her stupidity.

Seen didn't flinch in Sarah aggressive approach to her. She stood firm as her eyes looked forward at the furious mother.

"We were being chased by some guys, but we're fine." Seen replied.

"John could have been killed or blown up." Sarah looked at her.

John glanced at Seen out the corner of his eyes as his mother did see the news of their destruction.

"Yeah I caught the news Seen," Sarah continued. "Luckily there putting it as a gang territory dispute. I'm going to say this once. Don't let it happen again or you better pray your _mystery_ _friends_ get to you first before I do. Don't you ever think you can do whatever you feel like it in this house. Are we clear?"

"Yes ma'am." Seen said giving a soldier response to their superior.

Sarah shook her head in disappointment and walked away from the group.

Cameron watched John's mother leave the room and then looked at her friend. She saw Seen do a quick gesture placing her finger to her mouth and winked at her. The hunch she had earlier about the false story she told Sarah was true. Cameron wanted to know who was chasing after them and why.

* * *

Because of the minimal bedrooms in the house, Seen had to bunk with Cameron in which she stayed in her room the night before. Since Cameron never slept in her bed, she found no need to use it as Sarah didn't need to buy another bed in the room.

Unpacking the weapons in her black bag, Seen spread them out onto the bed. She picked up a small black container, walked over to a dresser and placed it in the fourth drawer.

"I have to place these somewhere else." Seen said about the small container.

Cameron walked over to the weapons. She picked up a M16 and looked at the different accessories. In under a minute, she assembled it together as she placed a clip inside it, ready for action. Cameron knew Seen was always good at finding good quality weapons. If she couldn't find one she would build one like the plasma machine gun, called the Screaming Angel she help construct for the war against Skynet in the future.

Cameron looked at Seen as she loaded up her laptop.

"Why did you lie to John's mother?" Cameron asked curious. "I know you didn't take John out of school. He left on his own."

Seen started typing on her laptop.

"I'm good at taking the blame for others mistakes," Seen smirked at her. "Besides, I've noticed parents don't really get angry at a child that's not theirs."

"Are you sure? John's mother scolds me all the time." Cameron replied.

"Well, technically on your birth certificate you are her daughter under federal law." Seen chuckled as it was ironically funny in Sarah disliking machines.

Cameron gave her a blank stare as she didn't understand her humor. However, footsteps caught her attention towards the door. A light knock was heard at the door which was closed. Cameron placed the M16 on the bed and then looked at the door.

"Come in." Seen said still laughing inside that Cameron didn't understand the joke. But her smile vanished when she saw John's mother enter the room.

Sarah looked at the two girls curious of the awkward feeling in the room and then her eyes focused on Cameron.

"Can you give us a minute, Cameron?" Sarah asked politely.

Cameron halted her movements, wasn't sure Sarah was to be trusted left alone in the room with Seen. She could still sense the furious anger inside her even though Sarah tried to conceal it. Cameron looked at Seen as she gave a head gesture of a nod, telling her it was fine. Obeying, Cameron walked out of the room but kept in close range just incase.

Sarah closed the door behind her about to say what was on her mind for the past half an hour but paused. Giving Seen a puzzled look, she saw weapons laid out on the bed.

"Where did you get these guns?" Sarah asked. They weren't the typical weapons from off the streets but state of the art military standard weapons with acceptable accessories attachments.

"In my blown up apartment." Seen answered not being sarcastic but telling her the truth.

Sarah ignored how the answer came out, not wanting to get into another heated discussion. It was the reason why she came into the room, to talk to Seen, to make sure she understood the situation they were all in.

"I'm not going to apologize for earlier," said Sarah. "By all means you deserve it. I figured you been on your own for a long time. I'm not actually sure when you got here, but you're not use to rules I'm assuming. However, we do have rules in this house. If you're going to stay here, you have to obey them which are my rules. Future John gave you orders to take commands from the head in charge well that me. Gun fire doesn't happen unless I say so. You tell others, especially me, where you are at all times. Do not bring unnecessary wanted attention to this house. Last thing we can afford is us all in prison where will be sitting ducks to Skynet. One thing and for most, don't ever put John's life in jeopardy again. You want to be an idiot and get yourself killed, do it by yourself. You disobey those rules again, next time there will be consequences for your actions."

Sarah turned around and headed for the door finally getting that off her chest.

"John doesn't want to be the future leader you want him to be."

Stopping, Sarah turned around and looked at Seen surprised by her comment.

"I can see it in his eyes. He's no way ready to become the leader we have envisioned him to become," Seen looked at her laptop and started to type. "That type of mind set will get him killed."

Though Sarah liked to have the last word in a conversation but this time she couldn't respond to Seen's words. She knew and always knew in her heart that John never wanted to become the future leader of the Resistance. Ever since his father told her what her son's future will be, she trained him to become it, even if she had to force feed him. If a girl that only meant her son for almost two days could see this inside him, her words made Sarah even more afraid for her son's future.

Sarah looked at the engineer one last time and walked out the door.


	9. Field Trip

**Chapter 8- Field Trip**

The debris and rumble in the apartment made Madison wondered what happen. One minute it was in perfect condition, well glued together from the bang up shape before, and now it looked like a bomb went off in it, literally. She saw her partner going through the debris on the floor examining several empty bullet shells as the same investigation team previously was baffled examining the same apartment again.

"Ellison I leave you alone for a day and this happens."

Ellison looked around and saw his partner standing in the doorway. She was puzzled and curious analyzing the damage.

"I tried calling you on your cell phone and at the office." Ellison handed her a bullet shell.

"I was out of the state. I had to answer a few questions from our boss." Madison replied looking over the bullet.

"Conley?"

"No, actually the boss that runs this country."

"Well while you were having fun, men come out of a black van with weapons and stormed the place, explosion, gun fire, running and you got yourself a movie scene." Ellison said still baffled himself.

However, a clear image of John Connor and Seen flashed in his mind as this changed everything of approaching their suspect in general. He had to be careful on the next move he made or he would lead more lives in jeopardy from the machine. It was one thing his conscious couldn't endure again.

"I think we should find the girl," Ellison continued. "Judging from what I've seen she's in some kind of trouble and can't go to the authorities or she might end up dead. She's hiding something. Though the situation was contained, it could have ended badly."

Madison slyly smiled at him as if she got Ellison on board of what she was truly trying to find.

"Then let's find her." She said as things were starting to move in motion according to her plans.

* * *

The sleepless machine that has traveled back and forth through time to kill his target John Connor, Cromartie, walked on a porch examining the premises of a house. Not hearing movement from within the home, he assumed the FBI agent James Ellison wasn't present inside. Using his strength, he forced the door open and walked into the house, while closing the door behind him.

He scanned the house thoroughly as there was no threat present. Cromartie saw files of paper spread out on the living room table as he walked towards it. Since John Connor trail was cold, Ellison was his only chance in finding him. He noticed Ellison was a good tracker himself in finding people, using his FBI status to help him. It was the reason why Cromartie still kept the identity to fool the humans around him in providing information he needed without much resistance.

Coming into the living room, Cromartie saw the case files much clearer. Sarah Connor files, his killing spree a few weeks ago, strange incident reports over seas and a picture clipped to a red folder was among the files. His vision zoomed in on the material immediately as he began analyzing the information.

The particular picture on the red folder caught his interest deeply as this was what he needed in finding his target. Actually, this was to insure Skynet wouldn't be destroyed in the long run. A young girl's picture displayed on his screen mode as he went through his data files of future Resistance Fighters Skynet acquired. The alias named said Sergeant Seen Watanabe. Under her picture listed her background information next to it which was mostly unknown in a few areas on his data file on the teenager. He looked into the red folder having an application file of ITT Technology School inside it. It was no use in taking anything else as Cromartie took the folder and walked out of the house. He still needed Ellison alive to believe he's doing the right thing in finding the Connors. It was his alternative plan if Seen's trail ended up cold.

* * *

Late in getting herself ready for the day, Sarah put on a faded marble shirt covering up the many wounded scares on her body she obtain in the past months. A handgun and a clip were on her dresser next to the car keys. She picked up the gun and slid the clip inside it. She walked over to her bed and placed the gun under her pillow. Having it under her body every night made her sleep better. Sometime it even kept her horrifying dreams at bay as well.

Coming into the main hallway upstairs, Sarah looked to her right seeing the only room lit in the house. Since Derek wasn't around it was Seen and her by themselves as they haven't said anything to each other since last night events that involved her son. Sarah wondered was she too strict towards the girl. Who was she kidding; her maternal instinct was starting to kick in again in thinking that thought. She had to be the rule enforcer or the young girl was going to get everybody killed in the house. How did the girl become a Sergeant if she disobeyed orders like this in the future? Sarah shrugged her shoulders about that thought and walked pass the door.

About to head towards the bathroom, she saw something that grabbed her attention as she turned back around suddenly. Silently, she walked in front of the doorway watching Seen at a desk looking in the yellow book then at her laptop screen repeatedly. She took out a pen and circled an address as four more circles were previously already on the page.

Curious, as she looked at a map on the wall circled as well of L.A., Sarah had to say something as it looked like the new member on the team was going to do something without her consent, again.

A soft knock was heard on the door as Sarah entered the room. The young girl didn't look into her direction concentrated on her objective.

"I'm making some sandwiches for lunch, you want one?" Sarah asked fully entering the room to figure out what the girl was doing.

"Yes." Seen answered still focused on her work.

From her body language, Sarah knew the young girl was going to do something that involved somebody in the house. She better ask now then find out later and be surprised. It was like playing a mind game with her, Sarah thought.

"What are you doing anyway?" Sarah asked as she lingered over to the bed in the middle of the room and sat down. She wasn't leaving until she got a full answer from her.

"Getting us equipment," Seen replied. "No offense, you guys have nothing here that I can work with."

The yellow book and the circling on the map, kind of explained what Seen was doing as Sarah started to piece the puzzle together. Although it all seem good when she said it, but how was she going to acquire this equipment. Did she have a secret stash of cash hidden some place unknown to her?

"Where's Lt. Reese?" Seen asked as she finally looked at John's mother.

She smirked as it was comical hearing his name being said in a formal manner. "You can call him Derek. If were going to be invisible to Skynet, you can't call him Lt. Reese in public. However, I sent him on an errand."

"Interesting," Seen thought and then looked at her watch. "John's done from school at 2:45 right?"

Sarah glanced at her oddly as the red flags went up in her mind. "Yes…Why?"

Seen smiled as she closed the yellow book. "Perfect."

* * *

Shaking his Snapple juice he got from the vending machine, John was at a table in the cafeteria by himself as he opened it up and started to drink it. Upon drinking the juice, John glanced around his surroundings like a surveillance camera. Since Cromartie paid a visit to his school before he had to stay alert. While doing his daily surveillance of the cafeteria, he spotted his friend coming towards him as he smiled at her.

"Hey." John said placing his drink on the table.

"Hey," Riley sat down with her food tray and looked at John curious. "Are you okay?"

"About what?"

"Your disappearance act you pulled yesterday. Your sister was looking for you." Riley said concerned as John left her at Wendy's and never came back to school.

"Sorry, I had to do something important which had to be done. Sorry if I left you hanging." John smirked, hoping that answer would be enough.

"No problem," Riley said moving her food around on her plate. "So I hear you're smart at math. Want to help me with it?"

"Well…" John gave her an unsure look wondering if that was a good idea. He had to be careful not to endanger her life if things hit the fan again just like yesterday.

Riley saw his expression. "Come on. Meet at the library after school. I bet Mrs. Fields would be happy to see students there for once."

She chuckled as John was amused by her comment in school student visiting the library which was rare these days. If the place was still on school grounds then it would be fine for him in general.

"Sure." John finally gave in.

"Alright then cool." Riley smiled at him and then dug into her lunch.

John watched her as he was starting to like Riley more then just a friend. He hasn't felt this way for a girl in a long time. He just hoped his all ready determined future career choice in life doesn't affect his relationship with her. He wanted to keep it a secret as possible.

* * *

Observing the area confused, Sarah looked at the teenage girl in front of her picking up a comic book at a newsstand. She wasn't sure what Seen's fascination about comic books was, but now she understood Cameron words about her habits ending her in trouble. Did Seen drag her out of the house to pick up comic book or was it something else, which confused Sarah to no end with the girl's behavior.

"Why are we at a newsstand?" Sarah finally asked.

Amazed like a child opening a Christmas gift, Seen picked up the new addition to one of her favorite comic books she has been following.

"The new Justice League comes out tomorrow. He has it a day early." Seen smiled at her as she began to read the first page.

Sarah looked at her oddly forgetting that the girl was a hardcore Resistance Fighter. The way Seen's been acting in front of her, maybe the past great life have effected her more then she thought.

"I thought that was a cover to blend in with your coworkers, which actually makes you standout even more. Girls don't read comic books or fix a broken register in less then a minute." Sarah stated about her obscure previous behavior.

Curious and confused, Seen looked at Sarah. "Why not?"

"Because they normally don't. They read Teen and Glamour Magazine, go to the mall, hang out with friends, see a movie…teenager stuff." Sarah explained.

"Wow…that sounds boring to me," said Seen and then went back to her reading. "It's not my fault anyway. John got me into comic books when I was twelve. For some unknown reason he had five laying around his bunker and decided to show it to me. I liked reading them after that. They showed different versions the artist drew the sky. When I kept reading them over and over again I started to understand the message behind the chapter each story had."

Seen quickly glanced across the street at a Radio Shack store then back at Sarah to not alert her.

"Superman is my favorite comic book hero," Seen continued. "He comes from a different world, knowing he's different with powers that can destroy the earth and he decides to use them for good, knowing this isn't his true home world. But he adopted it as his own and to bring hope to humans. Gotta like a fiction character like that."

Seen gives the woman a slight smile and then looked over at a Radio Shack building again seeing shipment being hauled into the store's loading dock.

"This is perfect."

"What's perfect?" Sarah asked because last time she heard that it ended her at the newsstand, which she thought was a waste of time.

"You'll see." Seen answered.

* * *

Turning off a bathroom faucet, John wiggled his hands a little and got a paper towel. He looked at himself in the mirror and smirked hoping the day will end well. He balled up the paper towel and threw it in the trash can as if it was a basketball net.

Walking out of the bathroom, he turned to his right but was startled who was in his path. Her quiet movements irk him that almost made his heart jump out of his chest. He prayed she would stop that when she was around him. Around his mother and uncle it was fine getting amusement out of it, but around him _no_.

"How long you've been standing there?" John asked his protector.

"Not that long." Cameron responded monotone as they began to walk in the school hallway.

"You don't have to follow me everywhere you know. After awhile…it's kind of disturbing."

"Since your last disappearance, I have to watch you better or I'll get yelled at again." Cameron said as this also indicated Seen's taking the fall for him yesterday as well.

John exhaled forgetting to apologies for making her worry. It was wrong for him and Cameron didn't deserve hearing the lashing from his mother of his disappearance.

"Look," John looked at his protector. "I'm sorry about that, but I really don't need to be watched all the time. I can take care of myself."

"Can you?" Cameron said and opened the library door. She walked inside first as John was still thinking about her answer. It was a question he asked himself over and over again, unsure if it would be answered when the time comes.

He followed behind his protector seeing Cameron walk over to the far corner towards another table sitting away from John and his friend. It was John's idea and Cameron didn't object as long as he was visible for her to watch. He knew Cameron scared Riley yesterday and helping her with her math work while his protector was watching wasn't going to get anything done.

John saw Riley at a table already into her homework as he walked over to her. He sat down, pulling his chair closer to the table.

"I'm having trouble with this problem. The answer I got is not what the back of the book have." Riley said.

"Sure, let me see." John said as he moved in closer to better see the problem. He cleared his throat feeling nervous being this close to her as Riley noticed it. She didn't want him to feel awkward as she tried to ignore it and paid attention to the math problem.

This close encounter caught the attention of Cameron as her head titled to the side. Analyzing the close human contact between the two teenagers, Cameron was curious from John's reaction. Even from her position she could see his discomfort. She wondered why. He acted like Morris when he was around her. Nervous, excited but feeling encourage to talk to her. What was it? Then Cameron came up with a quick answer and blamed it on _genetics_ as Sarah would say.

A loud noise hit the ground as Cameron quickly glanced behind her. Unsure of the noise, she stood up and walked towards the sound, investigating what it was. She came to the literature section labeled B6 on the tall bookshelves as Cameron saw the librarian Mrs. Fields, an elderly lady, drop a pile of books on the ground. Standing at the front of the ale, Cameron gazed at the old woman as she saw her touch her back squinting a little in pain. Quickly, Cameron analyzed the woman's posture as she took in account of her age.

"Are you okay?" Cameron asked staring at the woman.

The librarian saw the young girl and gave her a kind smile. "Yes, yes my dear girl. I'm fine. I'm not as young as I use to be."

She bent down and started to pick up the books she accidentally dropped on the ground. Not sure why, or what forced her to take this action, Cameron walked over and helped out the old lady. They both gathered the books as Cameron had more in her hand than the old lady.

"You're a sweet heart dear, thank you." Mrs. Fields said as Cameron gave the books to her.

Cameron wasn't sure if that was a good idea handing over those books as she looked liked she had some trouble with them. The same event could occur again in dropping the books. It was a high possible chance that Cameron analyzed from the librarian's old age.

"You shouldn't handle books. There not good for your back. If you keep going like this you can permanently damage the tissue muscles around your spinal cord that would leave you paralyzed in a use of a cane, walker or wheelchair as your age progress." Cameron told the librarian from the diagnostics she acquired in studying her briefly.

The librarian stared at Cameron from her comment and then smiled.

"I see we have a future doctor coming out of this school," said Mrs. Fields entertained by Cameron's words. "It maybe a grueling job but somebody has to do it."

She winked at the teenage girl as Cameron gave her a blank stare. Was being a librarian that horrible, Cameron thought.

"Besides," Mrs. Fields continued. "Books are my life. They bring so much imagination, creativity and knowledge…something most teenagers these days don't care much about unless it's video games."

"If video games are replacing books, why do you still do your job? They'll be no purpose." Cameron said wanting to understand her determination.

The librarian looked at the teenage girl curious about her question.

"Just because children are using something else to occupy their time instead of books, you get a few who just want to read for their own enjoyment. Those few will need somebody there to guide them. And there I will be to help as best as I can." Mrs. Fields smiled at the inquisitive girl.

Cameron analyzed and stored the information in her database. Now she understood the reason why the old lady still pursues her profession despite her health problems. She glanced at John through the bookshelves seeing him help Riley with her homework. What John told her about taking care of himself; it would mean he didn't need her protection anymore when that time truly comes. Could she be like the old lady, when she becomes replaced by something else like his independence? It was a question she couldn't answer. In truthfully, it was a question she didn't want to be answered.

The Librarian saw the teenager in deep thought as she saw what her eyes was glancing at.

"Do you want to help me a little? I can show you some good books to read along the way?" Mrs. Fields asked with enjoyment.

Thinking about her request, she had nothing to do. It would keep John in her sight, and she wanted to know the three principles she spoke about in reading books.

"Yes." Cameron finally answered.

"Good then, I'll show you how to put the book away from the numbers on the books."

Mrs. Fields come out of the ale and went to her cart placing the books in her hands on it. She went to a different category of books and showed Cameron how to place the books in their proper place as Cameron carefully focused on the specific directions on doing the little task she asked to achieve.

John saw his protector not at her table as he straightened up in his chair. He prayed she didn't do anything as now she was playing the disappearing game. Then his eyes looked in the west direction and saw his protector interacting with the librarian. Intriguing and puzzled, he found it odd what she was doing.

For most of the entire time in the library, John found it interesting watching Cameron putting the books away. He wondered what made her do this. He defiantly knew this wasn't part of her program as _he_ was her main objective. Was it out of kindness? Did Cameron actually understand the meaning of the word _kindness_? He wanted to know why as this deviated his focus on his math homework and entirely on his protector the entire time.

* * *

Taking public transportation home was quiet as John wanted to ask Cameron about her work at the library. He noticed she checked out four books on her new library card as he wondered what type of books caught her interest. Was it politics, computer science, literature, art, war or science fiction? Thinking about this he wasn't sure when did this struck his interest to know what Cameron was doing in her off time. If he didn't tell her to sit away from them he wouldn't be racking his brain about this pointless interest he found in her.

John cleared his throat as they were walking up the driveway. "So, how was your new job?"

"Job?" Cameron asked unsure the meaning of his word if _he_ was her job.

"Yeah, with Mrs. Fields. I thought that was nice of you helping her put the books away. But why did you do it?"

"I wanted to understand what she was saying about books."

Confused, John slowed his pace unsure what that comment meant. To him Cameron was a book of riddles. Figuring her out took more time than normally talking to a human.

Upon coming to the house, John acknowledged a white miniature truck parked in the driveway as he walked up the steps wondering who was at the house.

Both John and Cameron came into the house as John announced they were home. Stepping into the home, John noticed the entire day his mother didn't call him, not once. Either she was not worried about him, which would be a first, or his mother and uncle are doing something illegal.

They walked into the living room and saw his mother, uncle and the new member of the group dressed in black clothing with certain breaking in entering tools laid out on the table. Illegal, John thought to himself.

"Where are you guys going, to rob a bank?" John asked sarcastically.

"I wish," answered Seen placing a miniature flashlight in one of her pants pockets on her leg. "We're robbing different Radio Shacks and small PC stores."

"Why?" John asked baffled.

"Because it's time for the public to care about their future by helping us out." Seen gleefully smiled at him and walked away.

On a nightstand, Seen picked up a small black bag, opened the front door and walked out followed by Derek.

"You coming?" Sarah asked and followed the others.

At a complete loss, John looked at his protector as she shrugged her shoulder unsure what Seen meant herself, and followed the group out the door. As John always told himself, it was never a dull minute in the Connor family.

* * *

The team was divided as Sarah and Derek was in their Dodge truck across the street while Cameron, Seen and John was in the white truck pulled up behind the Radio Shack building loading dock.

"Why can't we just hit one Radio Shack?" John asked not understanding Seen's logic.

"Because it will bring too much attention. They won't know the equipment is gone from their stock until next month. Besides certain places don't have what I need. It's a perfect job." Seen explained as she stepped out of the truck.

This signaled Derek and Sarah to come out of the vehicles and headed towards the back of the store.

Cameron went onto the loading pad and saw the lock at the bottom of the garage door. She bent down.

"Now we should be careful…" Seen paused her sentence when she heard clinging noise behind her.

Using one hand relying on her superior strength, Cameron lifted the garage door over her head breaking the lock in the process.

"…About opening the door because of the silent alarm." Seen finished her sentence as she looked at Cameron bizarre.

Cameron saw her expression and then went into the loading dock as she was surrounded by boxes. Oddly, the others looked at John's protector as she was supposed to wait for Seen's signal.

"Turn off the alarm." Sarah instructed.

Following her orders, Seen went into the loading dock and walked towards the alarm system.

She was companied by John as her back support. He pulled out an electronic screw driver from his pocket to open the alarm pad. Once done, wires hung out as Seen attached red and blue wires that were hooked up to a small devices, the size of a barcode shipping scanner she brought along that could crack any code in under a minute. Waiting, the number showed up on the screen as Seen tapped the numbers in quickly as the silent alarm was turned off.

"Easy." Seen smiled.

Hurrying her actions, she took the devices attached to the wires as John placed the alarm pad back on.

Seen took out a few papers from inside her jacket. She looked around the stock room as she saw barcode numbers on each box that caught her attention. This would make their job easier and faster given the time they had.

"Okay look for these specific barcodes on the boxes," said Seen as she handed the group their separate task. Seen glanced at her watch. "We have fifteen minutes before the cops make there next rounds around the block. We don't want them to get suspicious of two trucks sitting outside a deserted street."

Quickly and not sparring time, they all started to search for the barcode numbers. Using her quick scanning in her view mode, Cameron found her first item which was a rectangular large box four foot in height. Next to it was her second item in a smaller box. She staked the small box on top of the big box and then lifted both item with ease as it would have taken a moving fork lift to move her first item. Walking outside, Cameron placed the items inside the truck.

Throughout the entire night until the early morning as sunrise began to interrupt their shopping spree, Sarah and the others were done in the nick of time that Seen calculated. The supplies they need were all being loaded off the truck and into the house. The big question Sarah wanted to know, what the engineer was going to do with all of the new technology equipment. Maybe she should have asked her before the job started. Sarah was still impressed they didn't run into any complications during the whole night. That was a first and most likely the only time in their life that will happen.

In the basement, as everybody was still running on no sleep, except Cameron, they started to work on connecting the computer equipment together as Seen and John directed Sarah and Derek where everything went. Derek mostly stuck with placing the wires around the basement walls using a staple gun to secure them in place to not let them lay all over the floor.

This entire process lasted three hours as John and Cameron weren't even thinking of going to school today. Actually it was up to John as Cameron could care less about education she already knew. The dictionary and encyclopedia became her favorite bedtime books to read when patrolling the house at night.

Rubbing her eyes as she came up the steps from the basement, Sarah went into the kitchen. Trying not to fall over from sleep depravation, Sarah reached the top of the refrigerator and grabbed the coffee mix can. She began preparing a fresh batch of coffee as she hope it would keep her awake to finish the task before the afternoon.

She saw Derek in the living room looking more a handy man with his tool belt around his hip. Walking over to the window passed Derek's position; she saw Seen and John outside looking directly above studying the roof of the house. Not sure what they were saying, Sarah knew it had to be about the equipment they acquired on their small trip.

"Is this going to help us stop Skynet?" Sarah asked.

"That's what she said. If not we can sell the stuff on EBay and make some cash," said Derek as Sarah gave him an odd look. "That was her exact words."

Sarah smirked shaking her head of Seen's unusual behavior. If Seen said she was from the future trying to prevent an apocalyptic war from happening, nobody would believe her from her immature actions. Psychiatrist would label her a pathological liar and place her in a mental hospital. If it wasn't for Derek and Cameron, she would of thought Seen was a pathological liar and overheard about the future from hacking into her files when she was in a mental institution. Sarah learned in this world, humans are always unpredictable in wanting attention.

Whatever Sarah thought about the teenager so far, Seen have been amusing to watch and a headache to control.

"It surprises me. That girl acts like a kid sometimes." Sarah stated.

"What are you kidding, she's still a kid." Derek chuckled as he placed a hammer in one of his tool belt ring that kept the hammer in place.

Puzzled, Sarah looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"She's sixteen." Derek smirked and walked away heading upstairs to his room.

Dumbstruck, Sarah stared at the ceiling baffled.

Cameron walked down the steps heading out the door to give John a screw driver.

"Cameron," said Sarah as this paused the machine's movements. "How old is Seen?"

"Human terms Seen's sixteen." Cameron replied and continued her path in heading outside.

"No wonder why you lie." Sarah mumbled pointing her comment towards Cameron. She looked outside at Seen one last time and then went upstairs.

Coming into Cameron and Seen's bedroom, Sarah looked around the flower painted room from the pervious owner daughter's design and went to the closet. She remembered that black duffle bag yesterday and took it out. She laid it on the bed, unzipped it and grabbed the first object that touched her fingers.

The first object was a passport. Curious, Sarah picked up another passport and then three more. She opened each one as they had Seen's picture but with different last names and age range. She picked up five drivers license from different states, birth certificates, social security cards as all of them were legit just like their fake papers. She wondered who her supplier was.

"This girl is all over the place." Sarah said baffled and surprised. When did Seen come to 2007? She knew it had to been months before meeting them. It would explain her intelligence gathering of this time, or there store robbery plan wouldn't have work so easily.

Shifting through the ID's, Sarah picked out one that matched Seen's actually age. The name read Seen Manhattan. Another weird name that matched her insane mind, Sarah thought. However, she thought of an idea to keep the engineer out of trouble just like her son.


	10. School Days

**Chapter 9- School Days**

In the painted flower bedroom, Seen was asleep on the bed, covers halfway covering her entire face as she was sound asleep. Pieces of sunlight sneaked its way through the window as it was darker than normal for a room being right in the direction of the raising sun. Quietness and peaceful, sleep was what the young girl longed to have as she had all day to acquire it before working on her new equipment of computers downstairs in the basement. Peaceful sleep was a good cure to start the new day but in Seen case the new night.

The door opened as Sarah saw the sleeping teenager in her bear like slumber. Without any warning, Sarah pulled the covers off the young girl abruptly as she had on a white shirt and teddy bear character red pajama bottom. However, this didn't faze the teenager from waking up.

Annoyed, Sarah tapped Seen on the chest as the girl grumbled. "Come on Kid wake up."

Seen touched her head hearing a disturbing voice early in the morning. It was only two other female voices in the house and it wasn't Cameron's voice though she wished it was. It only met John's mother was standing next to her bed. Seen squinted her eyes and looked at her superior officer in the house.

"It's still daylight." Seen mumbled in a groggy voice.

"Get up now and get dressed. You're going to school." Sarah said and left the room.

What was she talking about; Seen just ignored her words not actually caring and closed her eyes again. It was then that it dawn on her the words that came out of her mouth.

Her eyes widen in shock. "School?!"

Surprised, she quickly stumbled out of bed hurting her pinky toe in the process. Who? What? When? Where? How? She didn't care. She wasn't going to school. If she knew what type of school she was talking about then _no_, Seen thought. Sarah wasn't getting her to attend no matter what future orders John given her to follow.

Seen rushed downstairs catching up to Sarah in the hallway. The loud stomping noise caught the attention of John and Cameron who was already at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Well basically John was the only one eating breakfast as Cameron was waiting for him to attained school. Derek was watching TV flicking through the channels until he heard the commotion behind him.

"You can't make me go to school without my consent."

"Look _Kid_, I don't need your consent," said Sarah smiling at her about turning the situation into a discussion. "I'm your legal guardian and teenagers go to school, especially _sixteen_ year olds. Besides if you're under eighteen the cops have the authorities to stop you on the street during school hours. Knowing how you deal with situations, I can expect a car chase on the one o'clock news."

"No, you're putting me in an institution from 7:30 to 2:45 five days a week, which is crazy. I'm not going." Seen argued and stood by her words.

Sarah chuckled to herself of the stupidity of this child as she walked up closely to her. Standing in front of the girl, Sarah smiled brightly in which Seen stepped back feeling remotely afraid from that creepy smile.

Sarah was inside of a jeep looking at the disobedient teenager in front of her. Though her loud out burst in the morning was amusing, but she always get the last laugh in the end. Sarah could sense the evil vibes from Seen as the teenager gave her an irritated look.

"Try to learn something Seen," said Sarah. Sarah rolled up the window but stopped. She looked at the teenager one last time. "Oh by the way…never underestimate me. It will be the last thing you do."

Sarah pushed the button and whined the window up. She drove down the school driveway leaving the teenager to face her worst fear. John couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation. He already knew how it was going to turn out the second Seen began to argue with his mother.

"You owe me lunch." John said as he walked passed the engineer.

"Welcome to my world." Cameron said following right behind him.

Seen sighed from the rage and anger built up inside of her. She turned around and finally looked at the full view of the high school. She went to one of these before after she time jumped and she hated every minute of it. At least with college she came when she wanted and left early in the day. She didn't think she was coming back to one of these and it was all thanks to John's mother.

"This is just perfect." Seen remarked and walked into the main walkway towards the school entrance doors.

* * *

The personal bodyguard of Dealer's walked into her home office as she was sitting in a chair. Her eyes were closed and relaxed as she rested her arm on her arm chair holding up her head in place. Six flat screen computers in two rows on top of one another were on her desk as images rapidly flashed on the screens searching through files from the FBI, CIA and LAPD. The task she set her program to find started to pick out ten identification cards, birth certificates, and home address to find the people she was searching for.

The heavy footsteps from her bodyguard's boots caught her attention as she slowly awakens. Barrack stopped in front of her desk and placed a small receiving black device down in front of her. Finally moving from her position, Dealer placed her hand down on her desk and picked up the unknown present her bodyguard given her.

Puzzled at first, Dealer smirked of the expectations she's had from her target. It was always intriguing to her how far she came in nine months span of chasing the engineer around the country.

"They found it attached to the hard lines in the main command room." Barrack said.

Further examining the device she knew it was a tracking device. "Change shipment dates and time as of now. I will command the shipment on our database. Though I am enjoying this game but we can't let her steal our equipment were collecting for our survival. Those that don't understand will create more problems in the future."

Dealer looked at Barrack as he wasn't moving to follow her orders. She had a funny feeling that it was bad news.

"Yes."

"The coltan off the coast of L.A. Jack reported that he acquired the coltan as scheduled and was shipping it to the army base you specified. However, eye witness found destroyed military truck filled with illegal shipping of coltan at the bottom of a cliff not to far from the army base that Jack was in charged of." Barrack replied.

Dealer smiled that her plan to store coltan in one of the unused military bases was interrupted.

"Where's Jack now?" She asked wanting to know where her T-850 went.

"Found him in the bunker trapped behind a reinforced blast wall. Even though it took awhile but I got him out. I placed him on another mission that was brought to my attention dealing with a situation at Cape Town in South Africa with one of our black market dealers. It appears Richardson was being dishonest and sealing information to the CIA on our operation. A placed a termination order as Jack will carry out the mission. I'm expecting to hear from him in an hour." Barrack explained the situation.

"Good. Very good judgment. Well for us, let the cat and mouse games begin," said Dealer as she glanced at her computer as it pulled up more files of ten unknown people. "The engineer will target Cyberdyne soon. Hire more security in the building. This should be entertaining how this all plays out."

Barrack stared at her blankly as this was an indication to Dealer he was worried about her actions.

"Don't worry Barrack, I already have my own plans in motion. You're forgetting I'm good at that."

"I never forget. Please try not to get yourself killed this time."

"If I don't then you'll worry about me all the time." Dealer smiled at him as this was starting to turn into an exciting adventure for her.

* * *

A tray of food was placed in front of the savior of mankind as he smiled brightly that he didn't have to eat his packed lunch his mother made for him. Making a bet with Seen was worth it, he thought. When his mother gave an order, it was the law in the house. The new member in the house had to learn it the hard way. There was nothing scary then forcing somebody to attend high school. Lucky for him he enjoyed it when it didn't evolve his life in the process ruining it for him for a normal life.

John had to chuckle again how the event went down with his mother and the engineer. If he could record it and placed it on Youtube it would have a million hits in less then a week.

"School is not that bad. Besides you can't walk around angry or people will think you're crazy." John said cheerfully.

Seen sat next to Cameron sitting across the table from John.

"John have you actually looked around this place?" asked Seen opening her milk carton. "High schools are death traps to keep children occupied while the parents have the real fun in the outside world and get paid while doing it. I mean, how she figured out my age."

Hearing wrestling of a brown bag, Seen suspiciously looked at Cameron and watched the machine placed a sandwich, sealed neatly inside a plastic wrap, on the table. John's protector was oblivious of her friend's stare as she kept focus on her task, placing everything out from her brown bag, neat and perfect in place to eat her meal. Though she only needed small supplements of nutrients for her skin, today she decided to eat lunch with the others.

"Ehh Cameron…Did you tell Sarah my real age?" Seen asked nicely already knowing her answer before she will respond.

"Yes." Cameron replied.

Seen smirked. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Cameron answered and bit into her sandwich.

Not really hungry and tired of wasting her time being in this situation, Seen stood up from the table.

"I'm going to class."

"But it's a lunch period." John said confused as he saw Seen walk away from them shaking her head in disappointment.

Maybe she was truly angry towards his mother, John thought. If he was in her position and did whatever she wanted until now, he would feel being in a box as well. What was he talking about, he felt that way most of his life. Trying to get out of the box was the complicated part he was still working on.

"You shouldn't make Seen angry John. She doesn't like that."

John looked at his protector and smirked as that was an understatement. Deadpan, Cameron saw him amused by her comment.

"Why are laughing?" Cameron uncomprehendingly stared at him as this made John stop laughing immediately, that her warning wasn't for humor.

* * *

Cracking his knuckles while looking around the custom store, Derek was amused by the brightly color fabric that was hung on the walls. It resembled a hippie store than a normal fabric store. Not seeing anybody around, Derek made his way to the counter and tapped a small bell once. It ranged loudly throughout the store as he heard movement in the back.

Coming out an open doorway, having two needles between her lips and holding a blue piece of fabric, a middle age woman looked at the scruffy man in front of her counter.

She smiled politely and took out the pins in her mouth. She laid the fabric on the counter and looked at her customer.

"How can I help you sir?" She asked.

"Hi…I heard you can make anything." Derek said feeling somewhat nervous even asking this woman to complete this task for him. He didn't trust strangers as far as he could spit. However, what he needed in a short time frame he couldn't do by himself and plus he doesn't sew.

The lady looked at the man and then walked around the counter. "You've came to the right place. I have everything…while not everything, but whatever you request I can make."

Scanning the place to make sure nobody was in the store coming in or out, Derek took out a photo. It was one of his surveillance photos from Cyberdyne he took previously of a janitor.

"I need two of these made by Saturday. I can pay extra to get it done quicker if that's what you need." Derek said smiling at her hoping she would take his request without numerous questions.

Around her neck on a string, the lady put on her glasses to see the picture clearly. She looked at Derek suspiciously as it was odd the way the picture was taken. But she needed the client and over looked the bizarre askew picture.

"No problem. It looks pretty easy besides the few modifications for the uniforms. I just need the measurements." The store owner asked as she smiled at Derek.

In the back of the class doodling on her book with a blue pen creating the Sponge Bob character, Riley was humming a tone in her head, waiting for the class to start. Art class wasn't always interesting but she didn't have to think much to participate in class. Her teacher was carefree in which she liked about the woman in her geeky and corky personality.

Finally finishing her Sponge Bob picture, she needed something else to occupy her time. She looked to her left and saw Morris staring in the front. The three students surrounded him was also looking into his direction. Thinking it was strange she followed their gaze and saw a new student entering their room. The girl handed the teacher a white slip as she took it in delight having a new student in her class.

"Ah a new student in our lively class," said the teacher thrilled. The entire class looked towards the front as the new girl looked disinterested of the class from her expression. "Students this is Seen Manhattan,"

The teacher looked at Seen oddly and smiled in amusement. "What an interesting name for a girl."

The teacher looked around her classroom quickly and then saw what she was looking for. "Riley raise your hand please?"

Hate bringing attention towards herself, Riley complied raised her hand halfway wanting the students curious gaze to divert back to the new girl.

"Sit at the empty seat next to Riley." The teacher said placing her hand out in the direction.

Seen exhaled out of boredom and followed the teacher's instructions. She weaved her way through the class and sat next to Riley. Staring at her for a minute as the class continued with the teacher telling them of their new assignment, Riley saw the new girl upset about something. She knew the feeling of coming into a new school and maybe a part of her wanted to help the new girl to feel more welcomed to their school.

"Don't worry about Mrs. Tipton. She always acts like that." Riley explained as she smiled.

Desperately, Seen looked at the clock as it was only one o'clock in the afternoon. Almost as if about to cry from frustration silently inside, Seen looked at Riley emotionless not saying a word to her comment. Looking at her expression, Riley seen this before as this made her feel awkward, though she couldn't figure out where she seen it before.

Seen looked forward and then placed her head on the desk, miserable that the day will never end as if stuck in a time loop of the eight hour long day in this repetitiveness school. Sarah was lucky that she was John's mother, Seen thought. A big 'Thank You' was waiting for her after the day was over.

* * *

As the school day was almost finished, Sarah stepped out of the jeep smiling at the irritated girl leaning on a tree, as the engineer gave her a death glare. The way her expression settled into Sarah's mind was priceless as she knew children had hatred towards school, but she never seen a child hold a grudge the entire day.

Although she wanted Seen to be working on tracking down Skynet, however Sarah wasn't comfortable with the idea of leaving a teenager by themselves in a deserted house. She left John in the house by himself when they time jumped and he left the house without even discussing where he actually went when she found out. The situation could have ended severely in which in the rare luck they have it didn't come to terms.

Having that image in her mind, and the events that taken place, keeping Seen in check was going to be another full time job. She already had Derek, John and Cameron on her list. Now she had to keep another team member in line from getting in trouble. Her team was turning into a true family as she was becoming the tough discipline mother. Though she didn't want too as this would distract their primary objective, but with machines, police, and unknown men with guns chasing after them, being the mother enforcer in the house may not be such a horrible plan after all.

Still laughing about the entire situation, Sarah looked at her watch curious, then back at the teenager. How she did it, she will give the girl credit for her unauthorized actions.

"How was your first day of school?" Sarah asked humorously. Seen walked up to the woman and looked around the school ground disinterested but smugly smiled. "Why are you out here early?"

"Computers are wonderful things aren't they, in responsible hands of course." Seen said gloating about her background skills in computer engineering.

"Responsible huh?" said Sarah not humored by her answer.

"I didn't hack the system if that what you mean. The secretary left the school database on her computer screen when she went to the bathroom for a very _long_ time. Must have been the coffee." Seen chuckled to herself.

Judging by her snicker, Sarah wanted to know did she do something to that coffee. A full time job, Sarah repeated to herself.

"Your lying impresses me to no end."

"I try my best." Seen said sarcastically.

"Don't get cute," said Sarah seriously dropping the joking act with her. Her tough mother attitude returned and now she became the law enforcer. "Last thing I need is you getting busted hacking the school's database for your own enjoyment. I know what your classes were before and I want them changed immediately."

Seen put her hands up half way as if saying okay. It still was amusing to her in the end. What did Sarah expect? Bored teenagers do idiotic things. She never had the chance in the future and she wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity. If Sarah was born in a post-apocalyptic war she would understand, Seen thought.

Looking at the entrance door to the school behind her, Seen glanced back at John's mother; glad school didn't end just yet.

"I figured it out. John is watched by Cameron while I watch Cameron from killing your son again." Seen explained.

Sarah looked at her surprised.

"I've been debriefed on the situation what happened from Cameron considering the hostel environment in the house I sense everyday between you guys," said Seen understanding Sarah's expression. "In which in my opinion you're extremely lucky."

"Lucky," Sarah said in disbelief. What part of the story she didn't understand? Cameron trying to kill her son or Cameron trying to _kill_ her son, Sarah thought.

"And should be grateful too," Seen continued as this caught Sarah attention by her words. "You think dealing with men who cares about money is going to let you walk away, skipping down the street in taking something valuable from them. No. They make examples out of you. It could have been you…Lt. Reese or John in that jeep, or maybe all of you."

The bell rings in the background as Sarah and Seen ignored it from their heated conversation, not flinching from there position. Children started to pour onto the school grounds as Seen glanced to her right seeing the future leader and his protector coming towards them in the distance, and then reverted back towards John's mother.

"Nothing in this world is perfect Sarah. It's an overrated word that humans use to describe their inventions they create to produce market share. Cameron is not even close to perfect…and would be boring in my book if she was. You'll understand what I mean one day." Seen said in a serious tone.

She walked towards the jeep and opened the back door.

Confused, Sarah saw the young girl step into the jeep. Her words 'nothing in this world is perfect' was imprinted in her mind. It was the first time she heard Seen talk on an intellectual level and a second time defending Cameron in her actions. How come she wasn't afraid that the machine she reprogrammed tried to kill the future leader of the human race? Why wasn't she afraid that Cameron could kill him again? Why wasn't she afraid it would be her fault if it does happen? Did she even care?

Or was the girl right hinting to Sarah that it's her fault that Cameron almost killed her son. If she didn't contact Sarkissian about finding the Turk, Cameron would still be the same Cameron that saved her son in 1999. Was it her fault in the end? She was the leader of the house and leaders take full responsibility for their actions on what happens on the battlefield. Was it her fault of the divided shift in the house between Derek, John, Cameron and herself? Was it her fault?

"Mom. Mom. Mom!" John said repeatedly as this interrupted her thoughts.

"You okay?" John asked carefully looking at his mother out of space expression, calling her for the past ten seconds.

Looking at her son not answering, Sarah watched Cameron get into the back of the jeep sitting next to Seen.

"Did something happen?" John asked puzzled as he looked at Seen then back towards his mother. He wanted to know did Seen say anything to her.

"No," Sarah smiled and touched her son's shoulder to divert his attention from her perplexed state of mind. "Come on."

* * *

Placing keys on a nightstand coming into the house, Derek checked the mail shifting through it uninterested in none of them. He quickly glanced around the house as it was quiet but he knew somebody was home smelling rice being cooked. Throwing the mail back on the nightstand, he followed the cooking scent into the kitchen, as Sarah was making dinner. He wondered what the occasion was. Her cooking a full meal meant there was something on her mind that was bothering her.

"Hey." Derek said making his presence known by going into the refrigerator grabbing a beer.

"Hey." Sarah responded using a fork to move the rice around to not affix to the bottom on the pan.

"Everything okay around here?"

Sarah looked at him curious. "Sure, why not?"

"Just checking," said Derek not really wanting to fully say what's on his mind. For once he won't mention it. "Where's the Kid?"

"Which one?" Sarah chuckled at his question as she had two in the house now. He knew he wasn't talking about Cameron or he would have said 'Where's the machine'.

"Seen I mean. I need her to fix something for me." Derek said taking the top off his beer glass and gulp down the refreshing taste he's been missing in two days of his side project.

"She's either upstairs or downstairs doing god knows what," said Sarah as she started to stir the mash potatoes adding a whole stick of butter to give it its sweeten flavor. She stopped stirring as she had a question that Derek may only know.

"Can I ask you a question? How did Seen become a Sergeant in the future?" Sarah asked. She needed to know was Seen acting like an immature child because of her presence or was she always like this.

"You're asking me," Derek looked at her clueless. "I don't even know. Maybe you should ask her then tell me."

Derek chuckled then walked out the kitchen leaving the baffled mother alone.

"Everything is a joke in this house." Shaking her head as her questions lead to no where, Sarah was actually frustrated of it not being answered.

* * *

On a computer screen, algorithm codes was rapidly being read in the background as Seen was examining a photo out of ten, from the surveillance camera she acquired in the train station a week ago. They were pictures of the men that were chasing John and her as she was lucky they weren't turned over to the authorities or she would have been on their radar. If she had to choose of which police force she wanted after her, it would be the FBI or CIA. They were more discrete with their actions and keeping situations out of the media to not cause a panic. The regular police love to cause fear putting up rewards of a murder on the loose in the neighborhood. Seen still didn't understand that logic in the local police dealing with criminal situations. It only made the problem worse.

If her actions could keep quiet for a couple of weeks, then she wouldn't have to dance around John's mother. She felt like a double agent but not in the betrayal way. It was to keep Sarah stress free from who was after her. Lying to Sarah and even John would help them further sustain some what of their normal life they established. All she needed was a few days to construct a plan to make sure things wouldn't become more chaotic then it already was.

Bored with nothing to do as it was peaceful in the house, which he thought was odd, John saw his protector and the engineer in their shared bedroom, focused on what they were doing. John thought Seen would be downstairs working on the equipment they recently stolen. A quick glance at her laptop screen, knowing it was computer language, it caught his interest. He walked into the girl's room and glanced at his protector sitting on the bed reading a book called, A brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Puzzled, John smirked at the idea of his protector reading a book in her position like a normal girl. It was probably one of the books she acquired at the school library. At least he knew one of the books name.

"Hey, what are you doing?" John asked standing behind Seen curiously gazing at the photos in her hand. The place and time on the photos, John recognized the men immediately, looking at Seen surprised wondering where she acquired them.

"Trying to figure out who was trying to kill us a week ago. I seen two of these men before but the other six are unknown to me." Seen replied.

"Why would they want to kill you? You stole something from them. I noticed you're very good at that." John sarcastically said grinning.

"Actually I'm going to take that as an accomplishment, but why do people kill each other John. A group of men like them, I have a funny feeling it involves money."

"Makes sense."

"Hey John…let's keep this between us until we have more concrete information on them. I'm trying not to give your mother a heart attack just yet." Seen explained switching the photos in her hand to another picture.

"Trust me I understand." John chuckled and then looked on her computer screen. "What is this anyway?"

His question caught Cameron's attention as her eyes diverted away from the book. She gave Seen a look as her friend glanced at her and then back at John.

"It's just another side project," said Seen smiling at him. "Beside the signal coming into this house is really weak."

"I had no problem with it before." John answered.

"That's because I'm working on something bigger."

Looking around the room and noticing the time of day, the room resembled a night time setting. John stepped back and glanced into the lit hallway by the incoming sunlight from the windows in the multiple rooms, and then into the girls room. Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

Curious, John asked, "Why is it so dark in here?"

The room wasn't completely dark having the night lamp on that lit up the entire room. However, it was darker than the other rooms in the house being five in the afternoon. Then John looked at the curtains covering the window as it looked like something was blocking the sunlight. He walked over and opened the curtains as it surprised him which left him baffled what he was looking at.

"Wow you duct taped it. Why would you duct tape a window?" John asked confused.

"No offence John but you are my happiest fantasy." Seen jokily smiled.

Surprised by her comment, he almost chocked. It was a comment he never heard from Seen which made him nervous to quickly respond.

Clearly his throat as if something was lodge in it, John folded his arms feeling on the spot at a talent show.

"W-What?"

Seen ignored his body language as his cheeks turned red. "As a sniper John, I can kill you from two thousand meters on top of another house in the distance in your sleep just by looking into your window. You don't just have one window you have two, double the opportunity."

John smirked as he knew the question had to be something else of what his mind was processing it. From his amusement expression, Seen kept a straight face. The engineer pointed to Cameron as his protector took the duct tape on the bed and handed it to John as they just finished the task themselves a few minutes ago.

"Tape it up or put a poster there. You'll thank me later John." Seen said and then continued her task at assessing the photos again.

John shook his head as Seen reminded him of his mother just for a second, ordering him around without his input on the situation. Although he would have argued, but the crazy logic behind it, she had a point. Though they never encountered a machine that used a sniper rifle before, thanking God they never will, however humans are a different story. They have many enemies and letting them have an opportunity as easy as a bedroom window, would only give them an advantage that could have been prevented. Exhaling though it was a tedious task, John walked out the room going to work on the new assigned project Seen had given him.

Watching his nephew walk out of the room as he came out of the bathroom himself, he only heard about the duct tape conversation. Derek decided to wait on asking Seen what he needed from her and went into his room to ponder about executing his own mission.

* * *

While the family was asleep in the house, Cameron was on guard duty scanning every nock and cranny of the perimeter for unwanted intruders. It would have been quiet like before in the house during this time, however, not able to sleep herself at night as nighttime was her daytime in the future, Seen was relaxing on the couch near her. Lying down, eyes glued to the ceiling playing with a Nerf football that she found in the basement, Cameron and her was playing the children game called I Spy. It was a game they played in the future to pass the time when they were on missions together.

"I spy something grey outside thirty nine meters away." Seen said throwing her ball in the air.

"The 2005 Keya parked two doors down and it's actually forty meters from the house." Cameron replied monotone.

Seen gave John's protector a bizarre look. "Okay that was an easy one. Alright I spy something green with words indoors in a three meter radius."

Still concentrated outside, Cameron replied, "The dictionary located on the third row on the bookshelf."

Seen gave her another odd look. "Wow, you really are scary."

"Thank you." Cameron said taking it as a compliment.

In the kitchen for the past forty minutes unable to sleep herself, Sarah was finishing up the pound cake as a midnight snack. Sleeping at night wasn't always her forte, which was why she liked acquiring sleep during the daytime. Something with sunlight makes her sleep better then in the gloomy nighttime. To many shadows where things could hide she presumed that accompanied the darkness.

Placing the plate in the sink, she walked out of the kitchen and made her way to the hallway. About to head upstairs to the bathroom, she saw Cameron looking outside and then saw a Nerf football thrown into the air. For once Cameron wasn't alone tonight as Sarah wondered who it was lying down on the couch.

She was about to ask Cameron a question until she heard a familiar voice and it wasn't her son or Derek.

"Cameron…was John angry." Seen asked wanting to ask her this question since they found each other. It was a question that she's been holding her tongue, afraid Cameron may say something else.

When Sarah heard her son's name she stood still. Was she talking about her John or future John? Either way she wanted to hear the answer from his protector as she stood at the base of the stairs.

"Yes." Cameron replied.

Dispirit by her answer, Seen continued to repeatedly throw the ball in the air.

"I thought so," said Seen. "I think maybe John made a mistake. He should have sent another engineer back. I'm just a field soldier."

Finally, Cameron looked at her unconfident friend. Self-doubting herself was starting to concern Cameron as this wasn't the Seen that she knew in the future. She wasn't sure if the past was affecting her friend's judgment as she noticed it was leading her life in increasing danger than it was in the future. This was one of the reasons why John sent her specifically back to make sure Seen didn't divert from her objective. It was one of the reasons why John only sent specific Resistance Fighters dedicated to there campaign against the machine. The past could change a mind of a Resistance Fighter and cause further damage to the timeline.

Seen sighed. "I guess I can't question John's logic at this point, though most times I do. I remembered hearing the stories from the older adults talking about how great everything was before the war. I didn't understand the feelings of it because I grew up after the bombs dropped. When General Neil gave me the job in a last minute decision, I thought it was going to be easy. But…living in the past and knowing the future of how it becomes…"

Seen hold onto her ball and looked at Cameron with concern. "How do you save a world that's already broken?"

"You're you," said Cameron confronting her friend. "You'll find a way because John believes you can. I believe you can."

She smirk feeling her confidence coming back. Seen was grateful that John sent Cameron back. She was the only machine that understood everything about her. Not anybody she served with that was still alive even knew about her full history. She kept her distance from others to never become attached again. With Cameron she was more resistant then others and wouldn't die so easily because of what she was. She was basically her only friend in this time that she could fully trust with her life.

"I have a lot of homework to do in saving the world, on top of school work," said Seen continuing to throw her ball in the air. "You know you can help me with that."

"Sarah said I can't do your homework even if you ordered me too since you dislike school. She said I would suffer consequences if I do." Cameron stated.

In the background Sarah smirked by that comment.

"Figures." Seen shook her head, irritated by Sarah's rules and regulations in the house.

Wanting to tell Seen to go to bed for school tomorrow since she had a hard time waking up, Sarah decided to leave her be. Breaking up the calm atmosphere in the room would seem awkward and she didn't want to become over barren to the girl. However, her conversation made her think about her son's future position in the war.

Walking up the stairs, Sarah stopped at a familiar door she stood in front many nights thinking about his future. Sleeping in his bed, as the door was cracked, Sarah remembered Cameron's words to Seen, giving the girl a since of self-belief from their future leader. It showed the characteristics of trust her son had for a young girl such as Seen to not send back up. It made her wonder about Seen abilities. If her future son could trust her then she could trust her as well. If only Seen would act like a Resistance Fighter, she could believe more into that thought.

Sarah smirked about that notion and then walked towards the bathroom as tomorrow was going to be another Connor day, hoping it was the good instead of the bad ones.


	11. Mission Part 1

**Chapter 10- Mission part 1**

A ticking noise was heard in the silent room from a digital alarm clock as it read 6:29am. Staring at the clock like a toy soldier, already fully dressed at this time, Cameron was waiting for a specific time to arrive. In her hand holding on the metal strap, was a small bucket of freezing cold water companied by ice cubes. This sometimes helped in situations such as this with her friend continuous nocturnal slumber. This small mission that have been appointed to her by John's mother since the young girl started school, Cameron have never failed to carry out the mission and wasn't about to fail it now from Seen's slothfulness.

As the time finally struck 6:30, her mission started to commence. Cameron saw the sleeping girl in _their_ bed wrapped in covers, sleeping like a bear as she raised the bucket of water. Coming down like a rushing waterfall, the cold drench water splashed on Seen's face.

In a frantic state, Seen woke up looking around the room discombobulated. She moved her wet hair from her face wiping the water from her face as the top part of her body was soaked. The cold water was affecting her eyes as Seen tried to rub them to fully wake up.

"I think I'm drowning!" Seen shouted trying to catch her breath from that sudden shock.

Watching the teenager, resembling a fish out of water, Cameron stood in front of her not fazed by her chaotic disorder.

"You can't drown from a splash of water. Get dressed or we'll be late for school." Cameron said monotone.

Finally collecting herself Seen looked up at John's protector as she hated when she did this in the future. She was unsure did Cameron do this out of humor or an order.

"Why couldn't you wake me up like normal people?" She asked.

"We're not normal people." Cameron replied. She turned around and walked out of the room giving the teenager privacy to get ready for school.

"A bucket of water?" Seen mumbled shaking her head but still felt chills over her body. She immediately got dress for school. She was curious, in revenge of disobeying orders, did John's mother put her up to this task.

* * *

Examining a picture in his hand, leading to a dead end in finding one of his sub-objectives, Cromartie come back to the original source where he found the red folder. Carefully scanning the area of possible threats, the machine saw the FBI Agent in his kitchen through a window. As time was ticking in finding his primary target, Cromartie had to make a decision, keep the FBI Agent alive or end his life.

Overly work from all the craziness that has happened in his life in almost one month span, Ellison grabbed a file on his kitchen table skimming through the papers in the yellow folder. His door bell rung in the background as Ellison looked up. Glancing at a clock above his window he thought his partner was early from what she said she'll come. He noticed that Madison was very punctual with time, never late, in which he thought was strange. Other people were off by a couple of minutes to there destination but not Madison. She was never late or early, as he thought this was aberrant from Madison to come this early.

The door bell rung again as Ellison quickly grabbed his jacket, still having the yellow folder in his hand of the task Madison requested from him to investigate.

"Hold on I'm coming!" Ellison shouted and jogged over to the door.

Not even looking through the peek hole, Ellison opened the door. Stunned, in a shocked state as the files in his hand drop to the floor, as if the world just stopped for a fraction of a second, the machine that he's been hunting down was standing on his porch. Paralyzed, frighten to move, Ellison couldn't even draw his weapon from his gun holder inside his jacket, as if it would actually affect the machine.

"James Ellison," said Cromartie in a polite manner understanding the FBI terrified response. "I just have a few questions to ask you."

Forcing himself to collect his thoughts, Ellison stepped back and then focused himself on the machine. Recollection of images from his fallen comrades started to play like a movie through his mind. This machine was the reason why he continued his job, to hunt and kill the machine standing in front of him. To kill the monster that slaughtered his team like they were nothing but flies in his way. Although as a Christian man, wanting revenge sounded much sweeter everyday he become closer in some information in finding _its_ whereabouts. It was the devil that needed to be extinguished. From his current situation, the machine had the upper hand. However, he hoped his value on the reason why the machine left him alive from before wasn't expired.

"Drop the act," said Ellison as he stared down the machine. "If you're here to kill me then I suggest you finish it."

"That will be unnecessary," said Cromartie and took out a photo. "What do you know about this girl?"

Surprised by the photo, Ellison tried with all his might to remain calm. The picture he was staring at had the same resemblance from the picture they acquired from before. It was his case picture, Seen Winter from the ITT Technology college files before the file mysteriously been deleted after the fire incident towards her apartment.

"I never saw that girl before." Ellison finally answered.

"Are you sure? I found this picture attached to a red folder in your house." Cromartie stated catching the Agent in his lie.

The picture Ellison thought he lost was in Cromartie hands. The machine was in his house and he was oblivious to that action. What else was it doing behind his back that he didn't know? How often was it watching him?

"You have seen her recently haven't you?" Cromartie asked again.

This time from Ellison's expression, he knew he was hiding important information from him. The decision was made as Cromarite reach behind him where his gun was held. About to carry out his decision Cromartie heard a car in the distance down the street.

Ellison cursed to himself as it was almost ten o'clock. It was the time Madison said she was going to pick him up. For once he wished she was late. Maybe today would be irregular for her. Wishful thinking, he thought which was stupid at this point. Another one of his partners was going to die and it was going to be his fault again. He had to do something. He had to think quickly or this was going to turn out the same situation like at the hotel incident.

Cromartie changed his decision and stared at the FBI Agent. If he wasn't going to help him then maybe his new partner would. Patience, he told himself as his partner was resourceful just like him.

Turning around, without saying a word, Cromartie walked off the porch and down the street, away from the incoming sound of the car engine.

Baffled, Ellison finally exhaled watching the monster walk away from his house. Should he follow him, he asked himself. Ellison came to conclusion that it wasn't the best option and not at this point of time. Unless he wanted another dead partner, he decided to let it slide.

A car reared up to his sidewalk, as Madison beep the horn lightly. She smiled at him as Ellison had to put on a fake smile to conceal his trembling body still. Calming himself, he got into her car as right away his partner noticed his flushed face.

"You okay?" She asked concerned.

"Ehh…yeah yeah," Ellison gave her a reassured smile. "I'm fine. Where to today?"

"L. A. loading dock in a case matching ours." She said as she began to drive down the street.

Eyes forward, Ellison had to keep today's event a secret as long as he lived. On another note, he had to warn the teenage girl in someway that her life was in danger. The machine had its crosshair on her. In responsibility of knowing this information, it was his duty to find the girl and protect her from the machine. If the girl was with John Connor then finding his mother was his best lead. Visiting her ex-fiancé, Charley, may help him with this as Sarah Connor's trail had been cold for the past months.

* * *

"Alright class, we're going to pair off today in look up different artwork of the Renaissance era where the mind can fully see the beauty of the past." Mrs. Tipton explained being more enthusiastic then the students in her art class.

"Why?" One student asked annoyed and disinterested. "This isn't history class. I took this class to get away from that junk."

"Learning is not junk my dear," said Mrs. Tipton not offended by that comment but more motivated to show the girl her passion as an Art teacher. "Learning of the past is to broaden the mind beyond the normal imagination that brings greatness like Donatello, Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo or my personal favorite painter that created the Birth of Venues, Botticelli in 1470's."

The student looked clueless from some of the names she mentioned, never hearing of them and not caring as well.

"Christine, there're other things in this world then Paris Hilton."

The class started to chuckle by that comment as Christine rolled her eyes still not interested by Mrs. Tipton passion about art.

"Since there is only a few of us in the class, the pairing will be easy," Mrs. Tipton continued. "Each of you will give a report on some of the people I said and then describe the paintings they have done in your own vision. We all see different views on others artwork so please a want a high school response and not a first grader answer saying it's cool, fly or hip."

The class laughed again of the teacher trying to use slang.

"Now let's begin," Mrs. Tipton walked over to her desk and grabbed her clipboard. "Okay, Christine and Morris you will be doing Michelangelo. Glenn and Davis will be doing Donatello. Michael and Billy will be doing Michelangelo as well. Jacky and Sandy will be doing Leonardo de Vinci. And Riley and Seen will be doing my favorite Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi known as Sandro Botticelli."

Riley raised her hand immediately. "Wait, wait a minute. I can't do it."

"Well why not?" The teacher asked confused.

"I'm not sure if I'm the only person that has noticed this in the class but this girl," Riley pointed to Seen sitting next to her and sleeping with her head down on the desk. "…has been asleep since she started this class. I refuse to do a project by myself while she gets credit off my work. I'm sorry I rather do it by myself."

"While Riley…maybe you can wake up Sleeping Beauty and get her to do something in class. You have plenty of energy I always say about you Riley." Mrs. Tipton smiled which was the reason why she paired them off in the beginning.

"I can kiss her for you Riley." Davis brightly smiled sitting next to the sleeping teenager, referring his comment to the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty.

The class chuckled, giving whistling noises and perked lips in the process from the immaturity of the students. Unlike the others, Riley wasn't amused as she looked at her hopeless partner.

The bell rings as the students begin to pack their belongings.

"Remember, reports are due next Tuesday! It gives you plenty of time over the weekend!" Mrs. Tipton shouted to talk over the loud commotion from her students.

Almost everybody was out of the class as Mrs. Tipton was packing up as well. Being nearly the last student out of the room, Riley looked at the clock on the wall, baffled, and then at the sleeping student that still hasn't budged from her position since class started.

Tapping her shoulder, this awakens Seen from her slumber as she looked around finding the room empty but only Riley and the teacher.

"Hey, class ended." Riley said giving her an odd look.

Without saying a word, Seen stood up and started to walk out the class. Unlike other students, Riley realized Seen never carried any books or book bag with her ever since she attended the class.

Hurrying up after her, Riley had to make the partner routine work or she wasn't going to achieve an A in one of the easiest class in school.

"Wait, wait!" said Riley finally catching up to Seen in the hallway. "Look, we have a project to do together and it needs to get done by next class."

"Okay then I'll do it for us." Seen said and kept walking ahead.

Annoyed by that comment as if deciding the project for them, Riley hurried back up to her in a speedy pace.

"How temping that sounds, but no," said Riley serious. "We have to do this together. Mrs. Tipton knows my work and hand writing so it'll be wasted effort."

Irritated about this whole school ordeal because of John's mother, Seen finally gave in.

"Fine." Seen answered.

However, upon her answer she saw a familiar face in the distant hallway looking directly at her. She saw the man give her a slight nod and walk out an exit door as if wanting her to follow him.

"Free library after school. Be there by three o'clock." Riley said.

"Sure if you insist," Seen responded not even looking in her direction but focused on the man that left her sight. "I have to go."

She left Riley behind as her partner sighed hoping the library won't put the sleeping teenager to sleep.

Sitting outside on blenchers gazing out at the school's football field, Derek, who Seen saw in the hallway previously, was waiting for her presence. What was he doing here, Seen wasn't sure. She had a feeling it had something to do with her. In Resistance Fighter's language, it meant involving running, guns and mortal danger.

Not even saying a word, Seen sat next to the quiet Lt. and gazed at the deserted football field.

"How's school?" Derek smirked how ironic it sounded to him.

"I'm being punished Lt." Seen answered annoyed but explained it in a proper tone one would talk to a superior officer.

Derek chuckled. "That bad huh?"

"Yes. The only class I had in my life that was useful towards my survival was a five second drill to stay alive. John said here's a gun and try not to die." Seen explained.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

Derek looked at his subordinate. What he wanted to ask her two days ago have finally come, and away from suspicious ears.

"I have a job in order to infiltrate Cyberdyne main headquarters." Derek said as Seen curiously looked at him.

"If Skynet's smart, they'll have that place guarded heavily." Seen said hearing a flaw in his mission before listening to the full details.

"I know. We're going to be posing as janitors, sneaking in the back entrance. I got everything ready for the plan to be executed. I know for sure the Turk is in there." Derek explained wanting to stop the running, and deal with the problem in which Sarah have been sitting on it for a while.

"When is the mission?"

"Tonight. But I want to do this without the Connors…or the machine."

Surprised by his rogue actions, Seen glanced at the man. "But Sarah…"

"Sarah haven't seen or lived what we have, or if we don't stop Skynet they will see it. Up close and personal. I need somebody that can cover my back and pull the trigger without hesitation."

Red flags went up in Seen's mind as this was a bad idea. Just like Derek, she had her on interior motives dealing with Skynet and this plan could impede that. Keeping her motives a secret must be kept from the Connors and even Derek himself. What she knew, they weren't ready to handle the monsters that were after her which was linked to Skynet in some form or way. However, seeing the desperation on Derek's face she had to comply too his order. Maybe it was guilt knowing his pain or trying to turn this mission into a positive on her part, either way Derek out ranks Sarah in the command ladder in her book. Also the fact Resistance Fighters don't leave one another behind to die in combat. It was the number one rule taught at Tech-Com.

"What time do we engage the enemy headquarters?" Seen asked as she was serious in successfully accomplishing this mission.

"Ready in twenty-two hundred hours."

Without saying anything else, Derek stood up and went down the blenchers walking away from the teenager.

"I'm going to get yelled at for this. Yup." Sighing, Seen gazed up at the sky. It was always beautiful to watch, as it prepared her mentally in going into a suicidal mission such as this.

* * *

The day went fast as school ended quickly. At three o'clock following Riley's instructions, Seen was standing at the center of the free library looking at the opened spaced building filled with books. Quickly glancing at everything in the surrounding area, open space was not her cup of tea. She was going to have to tell Riley she wanted to sit in the back of the library to avoid anybody to recognize her. Humans have good memories at the wrong time, Seen thought.

"Looks interesting don't it. First time?" Riley smirked as Seen resembled one of those students that never seen a library before.

"No. It just looks different." Seen responded.

"Different from what…other libraries. There basically the same. Books, books and oh yea more books," Riley walked ahead of Seen and smiled. "Come on. I'll show you around. Don't worry the books don't bit."

"Can we get a table in the back?"

"Why? Don't want anybody to see you here in destroying your 'popular' reputation in school?"

"Yes." Seen said flatly.

"Sure. If it keeps you awake." Riley stated about her sleeping habits as she found a table vacant in the back.

Seen followed Riley to the table and sat down. Not wasting any time, Riley roam through her bag to get her notebook to start the project. Not needing to record everything down on paper which was a waste in her book, Seen eyes carefully surveillance the perimeter. The table where they sat was perfect. The exit was just a few meters from them and the books provided excellent covering fire.

"Jumpy much."

Seen looked at art partner. "No…What are we doing for the project?"

"On a guy named Botticelli from the Renaissance era," said Riley taking her bald point pen and started writing in her notebook. "I say we do the work on The Birth of Venus and call it a day. It's the only one I remember because it's Mrs. Tipton's favorite. Let's try to get enough information on both Botticelli and the painting to write about it for the project."

Both of the girls split up to look for useful information on their project. Riley searched the easiest way to look for somebody, on the interest and the electronically library reference, while Seen asked the librarian. The Librarian pointed her to the direction on what she wanted as Seen followed her instructions.

Walking down a long ale in the reference section of the six hundred numbers, Seen saw a few books on her topic. Some books were thicker than others as she didn't want to write a book on the person. In the college courses she took, she hated that part about attending full time. It was worthless classes that had nothing to do with her chosen major which caused her the most problems. She sighed as she was reliving it all over again.

Deciding, Seen took two books and called it a day. The books were lengthy to read so she had to speed read through it quickly. Actually Cameron could help her with that task. She only needed to trick her to make sure she didn't feel in disobeying Sarah orders in doing her homework.

At the end of the ale, she stumbled upon another one making her way back to the table. However on her way back, war books caught her interest. They were in order of the current events from WWI and WWII, as well as other books relating towards those time periods dealing with both wars. Looking around as nobody was in her ale, something inside her wanted to know what it was like in the previous wars. She wasn't sure what the sudden determination to know this information was for and thought stopping Skynet was on her mind more then she thought about making this decision.

She placed her books down on the floor and pulled a book out on WWII book.

At first glance there was a group of men in fatigues inexpressive, gritty, and stern eyes harden by the war was very familiar to her. It disturbed her sometimes when she was in full combat in the future when looking into their impassive eyes.

Wanting to read more in the book, Seen sat down on a mini stole that librarians would use to reach further on the top shelves and laid her other books on the carpet.

Diving into the book off the bat, she saw many destructive images of the battlefield during WWII. First it was Pearl Harbor that started the War for the Americans, wounded soldiers in hospitals from the aftermath, ruins in Germany, and the massive unmercifully army of Hitler parading down the streets saluting him. The strange salute was odd that Seen never seen before. She wondered if it has any significance to the particular army.

When Seen turned a few more pages it was an image she was also familiar with. She witnessed it numerous times before but one in particular came into mind. She had seen it at a safe distance, which Skynet used at a camp that they barely evacuated in time in Utah. It was somewhat different design but the chemical properties mentioned in the book, no matter what transformation it changed into, Seen knew what it was and the destruction it causes, the atomic bomb.

Image after image of what the radiation did to the area, to the innocent women, men and children, Seen couldn't understand, why did they use the weapon twice against an opponent that was already weakening. She didn't think humans would do this upon one another to this extreme.

Turning to a new chapter Seen eyes widen as this chapter shocked her the most. It was the Holocaust. Men, women, children and mostly young boys' skinny as a bone, in prison uniforms with numbers imprinted on their arm. Barb wires, gas chambers, and thousands of mounted dead bodies piled on top of one another, this image was no different than the concentration camps in the future. However, Seen wouldn't think humans would do this to their own kind. This type of action wasn't like this in the future. Humans among themselves were family no matter what the person's history was. Now she started to see the decision Skynet made for humans fate. It was a fate she had to change. It was a fate she prayed she could change.

"Seen there you are," said Riley coming down the ale having a few books in her hand.

Seen quickly placed the WWII book down and picked up her previous books she had before. She didn't want Riley to see what she was reading to spare her the million questions as teenagers loved to ask.

"I've been looking for you. You find any books?"

"I found two." Seen showed her the books and started to walk forward keeping Riley's attention towards her. Lucky it worked as they both headed back to their table to begin their project.

* * *

Eating dinner at the Connor house, it was spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight as Seen and Derek was almost done their plate while Sarah and John oddly stared at the two soldiers. Sitting at the table with no plate in front of her, Cameron was looking outside at the darken sky uninterested in Seen and Derek's eating habits like the Connors. If Cameron was human she would be like them digging into food like they never had it before. Having food in the future wasn't a delight. A person would be happy if they had meat in several months.

It was quite at the table the entire time, as it felt awkward to Sarah. It was too much quietness that she hasn't heard in the house for a while.

"So Seen," said Sarah grabbing the teenager's attention from her food and breaking the silence at the table. "What you do at the library?"

"Art," said Seen and then looked at Cameron wondering what she's been staring at for the past ten minutes. "A waste of time I say."

"You may learn something new then the regular stuff." Sarah replied drinking milk to water down the food in her throat.

"I guess." Seen said and looked at her food uninterested about the subject. It was a strange unusual behavior she didn't understand people wanting to draw other people naked. For once, she didn't want to understand.

"Or you can learn about dancing."

Silence fell into the room again as everybody curiously looked at the machine in the house.

Sitting beside her intrigued by her comment John asked, "Why do you say that?"

"I heard dancing can be art. If you don't like to read art maybe you can dance it to tell others." Cameron said not affected by the awkward atmosphere as all eyes were on her.

Out of everybody this impressed Seen the most. This was a first from Cameron and it was interesting conversation she decided to participate at the table for once.

"What types of dancing you're thinking about Cameron?" Seen asked.

"Ballet."

Derek glared at the machine. He remembered the ballet dance routine she preformed in her bedroom at the old house. Why would a machine actually want to do ballet other then their job at killing humans? Just thinking about the dance made him feel uncomfortable as he started to fidget in his chair.

"I'm very good at it," Cameron continued. "I can teach you if you want. It's something different then the regular stuff, guns, hand made bombs, razor sharp throwing knives."

"Interesting. You can't say anything that involves something destructive can you?" Derek asked looking petulant that the machine was sitting at the table with them like she was an actual human.

Cameron stared blankly at John's uncle not harmed by his words but it irritated John as she saw him out the corner of her eyes.

He couldn't just have a normal conversation at the table without ridiculing his protector. If it wasn't for her Vick would have finished the job by putting a bullet in his head to terminate him, John thought.

Hearing snickering, the whole family looked at the engineer. Puzzled, as they seem to make this a common facial expression from Seen's unusual antics, they couldn't understand why she was quietly laughing as she covered her mouth, looking at Cameron the entire time.

What made the entire group further dumbstruck; Cameron gave a slight smile looking at her friend. The others at the table gave each other odd stares wondering did Cameron say a joke, or was it a joke between the two girls.

Suspiciously glaring at the machine, Derek was on edge about the interaction between Seen and Cameron. He already lost his nephew to this monster and now Seen. Whatever hold she had over them, and whatever plan she was constructing behind closed doors, he was going to bring it to the surface.

As dinner was done it was time for Derek's mission to commence. He wanted to make sure dinner was done first to not arise Sarah's suspicion about the mission. Last thing he needed was her to intervene with the mission as he couldn't afford to redo the entire plan including her in it. It was design for Seen and him.

Filling a black bag with accessories she will need on the mission, Seen was in her bedroom prepping herself as she had a 9mm in her hand ready to be used. She placed it behind inside her pants and let her light jacket conceal it. Coming into the room, Derek handed her extra clips for his handgun and C4 with remote detonators attached on them. Quickly focusing on the C4, she looked at the man puzzled.

"Are we planning on blowing something up?" Seen asked, not wanting to collapse the entire building and endanger the lives of innocent bystanders.

"If the mission doesn't go according to plan," Derek grabbed one of the C4. "…this is our second option. The faster we destroy Skynet the better we can sleep at night."

He placed all six C4's into the bag without feeling any remorse if back up was needed. However, Seen hope that plan never comes to surface, which meant plan A had to succeed.

Derek glanced at his watch.

"The guards will be changing shifts soon, let's go." He instructed as he walked out of the room.

Walking over to the window, Seen opened it. Making sure this mission stays classified; Seen tossed the bag out the window as it ended up on the lawn near the car. If she carried the bag through the front door, Sarah or Cameron would have been suspicious of her actions, especially John's mother.

The front door was in Derek's site as he grabbed the car keys on the nightstand.

"Where are you going?"

Derek knew he couldn't avoid her the entire time and looked at Sarah wiping down the kitchen table.

"I'm going to the hardware store before they close. Need to get a few things." He lied.

"Hardware store?" Seen said coming down the steps seeming interested where Derek was going.

"Yeah, you coming?" Derek started to head out the door without hearing her answer.

"Sure." Seen said and followed him.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders and continued to clean the kitchen. As long as Seen was with Derek she had nothing to worry about the teenager getting into trouble without her presence.


	12. Mission Part 2

Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Since the show is coming to the end of the season, don't worry I will still update until I actually finish this long story I'm creating. If the show doesn't get a S3 then I will still update. Review.

**Chapter 10- Mission part 2**

Chestnut eyes focused on a computer screen watching the rapidly fast images searching through California DMV database. Cameron tilted her head blankly staring at the screen, unsure what it was looking for. Who was the person it was trying to find? Using a program to search through a database on its own, this had to be Seen's orders. Her friend was looking for somebody in particular and she wanted to know who.

The front door slam as Cameron looked up directly at the ceiling. She heard footsteps heading outside as her head shifted to the small square window the basement only had. John's uncle was heading to the truck. Where he was going she didn't care. However, that changed quickly when she saw Seen carrying a black bag in her hand and stepped inside the truck with him. This struck her interest from the two Resistance Fighters usual actions as she watched the truck drive down the gravel driveway.

* * *

Using a zipper to zip up his green jumpsuit, Derek surveillance his surroundings knowing they were on enemy territory. One false move could either end their lives or place them in federal prison. He had to be vigilant from the words choices interacting with the employees of Cyberdyne or any one of them could be suspicious of their actions and call the security team. Being cautious and careful was a must for this mission to become a success. With the preparations he made this could be their only chance to stop Skynet once and for all.

Looking at his partner acquiring what she needed for the mission, he watched her place her hair in a ponytail and place a green hat saying 'Cyberdyne Maintenance Team' on her head to conceal mostly her facial appearance. Her look was still young and she didn't need security to run a check on their fake IDs. Thinking about this mission, Derek was lucky she wasn't nervous about this mission as he saw the focus in her eyes in accomplishing the objective. For some reason, this reminded him of Kyle at her age before he lost him to the machines in the future.

Derek placed his gun and extra two clips in his jumpsuit deep pockets as Seen carried the black bag that held there toys of weapons in it. Taking a second to calm their nerves, their stern eyes glanced forward; they were ready to infiltrate Cyberdyne.

They walked to the side of the building that Derek has been monitoring since his last few visits. Both of them appeared as if they were ready to come into work and start their shift which was at nine o'clock. Derek opened the door as Seen followed behind him letting him lead the way since he knew the vicinity better then her.

A young guard in a booth behind bullet proof clear view doors was listening to his radio while eating his dinner and reading a magazine. He smirked of a joke he just read as he drunk some of his bottle soda. The guard saw two janitors come his way as he placed the magazine down an inch from his vision. He saw the male janitor's bright smile outside the booth. Derek was about to say something, but heard a high pitch noise as the door unlocked. Unsure what just happen Derek gave Seen a puzzled look, as they both walked through the doorway.

Heading down the hallway, Seen wanted to know what the discomfort look Derek glanced at her previously was.

"What's wrong?" Seen asked. She hoped nothing was _wrong_ out of the ordinary from his original plan.

"It took me two hours to come up with a story to get us in here." Derek said feeling rather disappointed at the useless effort.

Seen smirked as she thought it was something else. "Never know when you'll need it Lt."

Searching around the place, they only had a little information on the design from the building. The large hallways were proof that this place was going to be a rat maze if they didn't acquire a map.

"This place is pretty big." Seen signified as she checked every aspect of the walls while walking down the hallway.

"Let's find the Turk and get out of here. This place puts me on edge." Derek instructed then saw Seen eyes wondering around the building. "What are you looking for?"

"Searching for a map of the building. They always have one somewhere on a wall from these business buildings for employees not get lost." Seen said.

Near an elevator down the hallway she saw it in the distance.

"Here we go." Seen walked towards the elevator followed by Derek.

Next to the elevator was a miniature map of the entire building. Both Resistance Fighters study it quickly planning there next move.

"Wait, B3 is not located on the map," said Derek bringing it to Seen's attention. "The janitor that I took the IDs from said that the building had three levels below the building for security purposes. He said the engineers were conducting a secret project on level _B3_."

"Then we're heading down there." Seen said digging in her black bag cognizant the level exists.

She took out C4 charge and switched on the detonator which alerted Derek's confusion. Seen placed it inside a steel trashcan. The half symmetrical top of the trashcan enshrouded the C4 for other employees to not acknowledge the explosive device.

"What are you doing?" Derek finally asked.

"Back up." Seen said and hit the elevator button on the wall as it opened.

By Derek taking the identification cards from the actual janitors, this granted them the access to level B3 by swiping the cards on the key pad inside the elevator.

Finally making there way towards there destination level B3, both the Resistance Fighters halted there position coming off of the elevator. Employees populated level B3 as if it was normal daytime business hours. Now the mission became complicated, Derek thought.

Disguised in janitor uniforms was finally coming into affect, as Derek went to a trashcan and grabbed the trash bag that was inside it. Helping him, Seen constantly looked around the hallways wondering where the secret project was being held. Was it down the north, west or east wing. They had come to a fork in the hallway as Derek noticed the predicament they were in. As Derek was done placing a new trash bag in the trash can, Seen placed another C4 inside it and continued to head in the north direction as that hallway presumably had more volume than the other two.

"I guess blowing the place up is not an option anymore." Seen said.

Derek looked at the young teenager remembering her pervious actions. "What are you doing then?"

"You'll see."

"I think I don't," said Derek as he still searched through the hallway checking every room that was visible to see through the windows and door windows as well. "There's only one thing computer engineers are gathered in one spot. The Turk is nearby. I can feel it."

The racks of computers in each room made it difficult to determine where the Turk was stashed. Luckily, Derek was familiar what it looked like from Andy Goode's presentation at the Chess competition a few months back.

"You see anything?" Derek asked as she was the engineer in which was eighty percent of the reason why he brought her on the mission. Judging from her past actions in structuring the Connor's house like at Tech-Com, Seen should know what to look for better then him in finding the Turk.

"Look for large servers." Seen said as she looked through each room on the other side and also double checking Derek side incase he missed something. At this critical point in the mission, they couldn't afford errors.

It was then that it hit her fast like a shockwave. Heartbeat rapidly increased, body felt irregular as her surroundings started to quiet around her. Her body reaction started to focus on something specific in the vicinity that her eyes weren't fixated upon. This was a clear sign that a machine was in the area or, as Seen looked at a double bolted door with a security access pad, she just found the Turk.

Yawing in his chair switching channels on the multiple security cameras in a room, one guard noticed a person on the B3 floor. Judging from the person's appearance, it was a woman. He changed the direction of another camera which was closer to the security door and enhanced the zoom to get a clear image of the woman. However, it wasn't a woman but a young girl. Confused, he wondered how she gained access to the level. They only had two females in janitor positions at the job. One was African-American and the other was Caucasian in her mid thirties.

"Hey Jim, somebody bring their daughter into work or something?" He asked.

Jim, who was watching his favorite sitcom Taxi, felt annoyed that his friend was bothering him.

Not glancing in his direction when he asked that bizarre question, he said, "At this time no. And no children is suppose to be down their anyway. Maybe you're seeing things Mitch."

"Well there is now."

Dubious, Jim finally looked at Mitch as he saw the camera video. Surprised, it was a girl and it wasn't Brenda.

"Let's go." Jim ordered and left the room with Mitch to investigate the issue in a hurry.

"Hey Kid there's severs everywhere, which ones do you look for?" asked Derek still looking into the rooms. However, he didn't hear a word from his comrade. "Kid?"

Derek looked behind him as he saw Seen standing at a door.

"Kid?"

Though it wasn't her name but it was a nickname the other Resistance Fighters in the E.R.T. called her that stuck with him because of her age.

The way she was mesmerized towards the door put Derek on edge. It was like she was captured in a trance as she wasn't responding to his call. This was going to bring attention as he eyed the camera pointed directly at her. He told her to keep it moving and not bring attention to themselves. Noticing that camera positioned a different direction a few seconds ago, they may have caused suspicion by her standing in one spot.

"What's the matter?" Derek said rushing over to her side.

"Something's behind here." Seen said pointing to the door.

"How do you know?"

Seen pointed to the security pad next to the reinforced steel door. It was the only door with a high level security coding pad than the regular card pad as this one required a thumb print. Right away Derek was on the same page, understanding her silent body language.

"Can you open the door?" Derek asked.

"Yes."

Seen glanced at a young man coming down the hallway as Brian was walking towards there direction. Derek saw the young man and the security card on his keychain filled with other keys. Understanding her answer, both Resistance Fighters began to blend in just like their job description said on their clothing.

Still having the trash bag in his hand, Derek placed it on the ground and started fumbling with his keys trying to pretend he was busy. Seen stood close to him acting as if she was assisting him, watching Brian stop directly at the door she was fixated upon a second ago.

Having a cup of coffee in one hand, Brian used his other hand and grabbed his security card. He swiped it through the pad and placed his thumb on the security pad. It said 'Access Granted' as the door unlocked. He sighed as it was late and he wanted to go home. Unfortunately his slave boss needed the project done before next week. He had no time to sleep or his double paying job will go to somebody else as this would ruin the project he's done so far.

Eyes widening in fear, the cup in his hand fell to the floor as the coffee splashed on the ground. Body trembling, Brian felt something sharp pressed against his skull.

"Scream and I'll shot," said Derek holding a gun at the back of his head with a silencer placed on it. "Walk."

Both men walked forward as Seen was behind them checking both ways down the hallway before entering the room.

"I don't know what you want. I have nothing of value. Please! Please don't kill me!" Brian pleaded shaking like a leaf of the many scenarios if this ended badly.

"Keep pleading and I might." Derek said grudgingly feeling no sympathy for being one of the people that will bring about judgment day, unless he prevents it.

Coming into another room, it looked more like an interrogation room but without the two way mirror as it leads into the main computer room. In shock, both the Resistance Fighters knew this was _the_ room from the different layout from the others.

Unlike Seen, Derek saw the devil infant machine placed in the middle of the room. It was connected to other computers around it in a circle like an operating table. Next to it was four large towering eight foot tall servers connected to the other computer equipment in the room and directly plugged into the Turk.

"What the hell are you doing to that thing?" Derek demanded coming closer to the window in repulsion.

"I-It's the new project for our new manager. P-Please! I just work here!" Brian pleaded again feeling the angered tension from Derek that he may pull the trigger any moment.

"What type of commands are you feeding it?" Seen asked never seeing the infant Skynet before.

Being around the early version of Skynet she couldn't pinpoint exactly what her intuition was telling her. On one half it was saying to destroy it to kingdom come, but on the other side it's saying to run away from this place. What did it all mean? Why was her other half saying to run away when her true goal was to destroy Skynet. This wasn't making any sense.

Trying to figure everything out, Seen looked at Brain frighten expression and then at the Turk. Then behind her as something was off. Why would Skynet leave itself defenseless?

"I don't care what it's being fed, open the door," Derek ordered as his patients ran out. "Will place the C4 and get out quick."

"W-W-Wait, what? Are you guys'…terrorist or something?" Brain asked.

"Open the door now!" Derek shouted.

Seen heard footsteps coming their way. She went out the door and saw guards heading towards them turning the corner. The mission was compromised.

"We have to leave now!" Seen said in a haste manner and took out her gun with a silencer attached to it.

"Are you crazy?! The Turk is right there!" Derek looked at Brain serious. "Open the door!!"

Seen pointed her gun down the hallway and fired off four shots as the bullets hit the wall close to the guards' face. It was a warning if they took another step towards there location she will kill them. Quickly they ducked for cover while drawing their handguns. They fired back as it now turned into a shoot out. Seen went back into the room for cover as the guards were very well at aiming. Jim quickly got on his Walkie-Talkie to call for back up signaling it was a code red.

"Lt. we have to go! Even if we destroy the Turk, it's hooked up to the main mainframe now. They could have already transported Skynet somewhere else and we're left staring at the husk." Seen stated.

It wasn't an answer to save there own lives. It was the only theory she concluded from assessing the entire situation from this point. The way it was set up and knowing who was truly completing Skynet, the Turk in front of her was a double. That was what her intuition was telling her. That's why her intuition was saying run away because it was a trap. It was a trap to capture her by pulling a suicidal mission in which Derek was following. If she destroyed the Turk by trapping themselves inside, the person after her wins. They would be dead and Skynet would still be alive unscathed.

The alarms in the building went off.

"Lt. we have to abort the mission now!"

Contemplating everything in his mind of what Seen was telling him, what if she was wrong and this was Skynet. But what if she was right? It was a toss up. Derek cursed to himself as time was ticking. Guards were going to be swarming all over their position in a matter of minutes. He was the leader of the mission and had to make a decision quick.

Glaring at Brain furiously, a harsh hit struck the young man's head as he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Let's go." Derek said.

Seen went to the side of the door, and quickly glanced out. She saw the guards coming closer to them cautiously as they haven't heard gun fire in thirty second. Stopping them in their tracks, Seen fired two shots. Each of them struck the guards thigh as they fell to the ground in pain, holding their gunshot wounds.

As the guards were on the ground disabled, Derek and Seen ran towards them. To make sure the guards wouldn't do anything stupid by grabbing their weapons, and making sure Derek doesn't kill them, Seen pointed her gun at them as a warning not to fulfill their intentional actions. Jim looked at the little girl, as he put his hands up while Mitch was still holding his leg in pain, unconcerned of the two intruders.

Running away from the guards, the two Resistance Fighters almost made their way back towards the elevator before reinforcements arrived. Coming to a corner of the hallway, Derek halted their position using a hand gesture hearing movement ahead. He poked his hand out but saw four guards running down the hallway, guns drawn coming directly towards them. Pulling his head back quickly, Derek cursed to himself looking down all three hallways of nowhere to go.

"Our exit is blocked. We're trapped." Derek said looking at Seen who was replacing the magazine to her gun.

Taking an item out of her pocket it was a small detonator as Derek curiously looked at her.

"We're never trapped when you have C4." Seen said and pushed the black button on the detonator.

In four locations around the building in trashcans including the one next to the elevator where the men ran past it, the C4 goes off. The high blast knocks the men to the floor from the intense force directed behind them. Immediately the smoke alarm and sprinklers goes off to control the fire in the building. Employees started to flood the hallway trying to escape the building.

Right away Seen concealed her weapon and forced Derek to move with the small crowd. The employees that were hiding inside there work areas from the shooting, was trying to escape the building from the fire. Eyes veering down the hallway, Seen saw an exit on the opposite side of the elevator the employees were accessing.

Upon reaching the door, one of the guards that was affected by the blast saw the two intruders about to escape. He drew his gun aiming it directly at Derek's back.

"Lt.!"

Seen shouted watching the guard actions. Unsure what she was shouting about, Derek's body was pushed to the side as he went down to the floor. The guard fired but instead of hitting Derek, the bullet hit Seen as it grazed her right shoulder. Seen fired her gun at the man and shots him in his right arm as he grabbed it in pain immediately dropping his weapon.

Collecting himself, Derek went to Seen's side looking at her wounded shoulder as blood began to seep out of it.

"You okay?!" Derek asked frantically.

Holding back the pain, Seen gave her commanding officer a nod. "Just a flesh wound. We can't stop."

"Come on!"

Derek opened the emergency exit door heading for the outside to escape this place. With Seen's C4 plan, the entire building was evacuating which provided the perfect cover as people flooded the lawn escaping away from the area. If the building wasn't populated with employees they would have been already captured or dead for a failed mission.

* * *

Eyes' wondering around the house as it was quiet; Sarah walked out of her bedroom on the first floor and looked up at the wall. The clock on the wall signaled it was almost midnight and the soundless house was quiet for almost two hours. Ever since Seen joined the team, the house was almost alive twenty-four hours with somebody doing something, mainly Cameron and her. This worried her realizing neither Derek nor Seen come back from the hardware store.

Maybe they did when she went to sleep. She prayed they were in their rooms as she headed up the steps. She sighed as she looked at an empty bed in Cameron and Seen's room. She cursed to herself and then went to Derek's room being the smallest in the house as it was a nursery before. She touched her head forming a headache as it was empty too. She was going to kill both of them knowing their doing something unauthorized. It didn't take a racket scientist to figure it out.

She came back down the steps and went into her room. She grabbed her cell phone on her dresser and called Derek. Pacing back and forth she finally heard Derek's answering machine. She closed the phone and called Seen's cell phone. It was the same results as Seen didn't have an answering machine but just a beep noise signaling to leave a message.

Annoyed, agitated and worried, Sarah walked out her room as she was going to try to search for them. She didn't want to alert her son and hoping she found them first before something else will.

About to head for the door, she glanced in the living room twice as she wasn't their in the beginning.

"Have you seen Derek or Seen?" Sarah asked John's protector as she was looking out the window patrolling the house during this time.

"No. They haven't come back yet." Cameron answered.

"And you didn't think that was suspicious." Sarah said coming towards her as this type of behavior irritated her about Cameron.

"Yes. I saw Seen leave with a black bag and I also saw Derek talking to Seen at school today."

Sarah eyes widen in shock as she hoped they didn't do what she was thinking after she told Derek to hold off until they had more information.

* * *

Power walking into the building furious as an egg could fry on her head, Weaver looked around her building as firefighters, police and Cyberdyne's security guards were having a conversation with one another figuring out what happen from the witnesses. Weaver didn't need unnecessary attention brought to her company. Her employer wasn't going too be pleased with this. She had to contain it fast before the media got involved into this.

"What happened?" Weaver asked her top security in charge of the building.

"Two intruders, dressed in janitor clothing infiltrated the building. One of the lab techs named Brian Pitt said they wanted the project you were working on and to blow it sky high when he was held at gun point. Lucky we came in time to turn their mission into a failure. Would have had them if they didn't set explosive charges concealed in trashcans at different points in the building. We're trying to keep the police in the dark by holding the actual feed from them, only showing them what they want to see." The guard explained.

"Really?" said Weaver thinking it was a little too late for that.

She shook her head in frustration and pulled out her cell phone from her coat pocket. She started to walk away from the guard making her call wondering how she was going to salvage the damage. She needed real back up as _she_ wasn't going to be pleased about the news. Before she could walk away, Weaver turned around and looked at her top security guard.

"Oh by the way Glen."

"Yes ma'am."

"You're fired." Weaver said and then walked towards the elevator door leaving him speechless and dumbstruck.

* * *

Silently walking into the house, like teenagers coming home from a party they weren't suppose to go in the middle of the night, Derek and Seen hoped nobody noticed their absence. It was dark as Derek didn't want to awaken the woman in the other room, especially _her_ since the master bedroom was on the first level from the house design. He knew the machine noticed them even though he didn't see her in the usual place in the living room. However, he could count on Seen to control her mouth in not to discussing the matter to Sarah. That was their main goal since the mission was a failure, to veil every information and evidence from Sarah.

A light comes on in the dining room as this halted the movements from Derek and Seen. Derek sighed and cursed to himself. Slowly he looked in the dining room/kitchen area. He saw the furious woman sitting in a chair, arms folded, blazing daggering eyes that could scare off a male lion, directed at the two Resistance Fighters. Seen saw this look many times from General Neil in disobedient soldiers among the lower ranks as she took a step back behind Derek. Why was it always her in these predicaments, she thought.

"Where have you two been?" asked Sarah in a settled voice keeping her temper in check before she awaken the entire neighborhood.

After answering that question, she was confused from the odd clothing they were wearing. Not only did it leave her puzzled but zeroed in on Seen's right shoulder. It was blood as her eyes widen.

"What the hell happen Derek?" Sarah asked, worried if Seen was hurt as her mother instincts kicked in.

She immediately went over to her wounded shoulder. The commotion caught the heighten sensitive hearing of John's protector as Cameron came down the steps.

"It's fine." Seen told Sarah as she was expecting the bandage around the wound.

This also made Seen uncomfortable the way Sarah was treating her like a child. It was something new she didn't like to adjust to in the past of mothers' overprotective behavior for children and teenagers in _this_ time.

"Fine. Yeah right. It looks like a bullet wound to me," said Sarah evil eyeing Derek. "What did you do Derek?"

"Went for the Turk, mission failed, plain in simple." Derek said leisurely. He hated having to report to her every five minutes.

"Just plain in simple Derek." Sarah mocked him. She was about to snap of his untailored attitude which could of killed Seen. The wound on her shoulder just didn't bother him as if it was fine.

"What were you thinking Derek?" Sarah asked scathingly.

"Hey what's going on?" asked John who was woken up by the disturbance as he was on the staircase. Puzzled, he glanced at Derek and Seen. "Why do you two look like school janitors or something?"

Not to worry her son already knowing Cameron was in the room, Sarah eyes fell on Derek solely.

"Cameron, patch Seen up now." Sarah ordered not even looking at the machine.

Seen didn't want to leave Derek behind to face the furious woman alone but she noticed that John was in the room, and answering a hundred questions she was not in the mood to replay.

Seen went up the steps as Cameron followed behind her. They both went past John. The blood on Seen's clothing caught his attention as he looked at Derek, his mother, and then back at Seen heading up the steps.

Wasting no time, John went straight to the bathroom and into the closet, retrieving the emergency First Aid kit. His mind was starting to understand the situation but wanted to know what actually happened. Did they go on a mission without telling him? From the commotion apparently his mother wasn't notified either.

Hearing the movements upstairs, Sarah still had her attention on Derek but knew John was distracted by Seen's bullet wound to proceed with the conversation.

"Are you actually insane? You infiltrated Cyberdyne without telling me, not only that you included Seen into your batched _simple_ _plain_. You both could have been killed." Sarah stated.

Derek was annoyed to no end how Sarah was conducting her ways in dealing with the Turk. For once he was going to express it.

"We're soldiers," said Derek staring at Sarah. "She's a soldier. I went on a chance and I took it!"

Derek shook his head as if this was worth his time explaining it all to Sarah. He walked passed her heading towards the steps then stopped.

"Stop thinking Seen's a child. She's a Resistance Fighter, not a child that needs to be cuddled like some of us in this house."

Sarah stopped a few meters from him, irritated by that comment. She knew who he was directing that remark too and it insulted her.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

Derek turned around, sternly stared at Sarah. "You know what it means. Besides, future John didn't mind seeding the Kid out on missions far more dangerous then this one, and that was at the age of twelve. There's many more just like her fighting a war they were born into and destruction is all they see every second they close and open their eyes. A world you better pray you'll never see."

The words he was uttering she tried not to image in her dreams. She noticed it when she looked at Seen, always working in bringing down Skynet, she wanted to ignore it. She wanted to ignore that Seen was a Resistance Fighter. It was a fraction of the reason why she wanted her to attend school, to feel that her life wasn't always in destruction.

Although she felt sympathy towards Derek's decision but it didn't give him the right to leave her out of an important mission such as this.

"Next time you want to go on a mission you better inform me and not leave me in the dark thinking of the worse. You make a stupid decision like this again, I'll just shot you in your leg, and then maybe you can stay still for once." Sarah said giving him a disapproval look.

She walked passed him heading up the stairs to check on Seen as Derek scornfully watched her.


	13. IQ Party Part 1

**Chapter 11- I.Q. Party Part 1**

Analyzing the damage to her building from the bullet holes in the wall and watching the painters finally paint over the blast marks that was left from the C4 explosives, Weaver became more curious than disdainful how the entire event manifested. The way it was orchestrated as she saw it on the video that was withheld from the police, the terrorist, activist or whoever they were, there plan would have worked. What made them stop? And why were they after her project in trying to destroy it?

A feeling came over her that her suspicious friend she met almost ten months ago, that made her CEO of Cyberdyne, would have something to do with this. It would explain some of the unknown events that have been happening over Los Angeles which included her unusual break in. A full investigation would have to be conducted on this matter or they might successfully succeed in their campaign next time, Weaver thought.

Making her way into the main room, Weaver looked at her project. She watched the wires, twisting and turning, connected around the Turk's original bases. Nobody was in the room as the employees haven't arrived into work. Glancing at the Turk, Weaver never fully looked at her project until now, the untapped potential of greatness it could bring to humanity. She lightly touched the top of the plastic cage it was being concealed in, feeling as if connected to her project. She smirked at the idea thinking the Turk was more then just an A.I. program.

Hearing a person fiddling with keys, Weaver's attention looked up as she saw the man that saved her project coming into the room. Unaware of her presence, startled, Brain paused when he saw his boss in the room at this time in the morning. It was uncommon and second guessing the situation he hoped she didn't come down from her office and say he was fired. His boss had a habit of that and he needed the job to take care of his family's medical bills.

"Hi…H-Hello Mrs. Weaver. I didn't know you were down here." said Brian nervously as he hugged his belongs he carried in his arms closer to him. His mouth became dry as he walked up to his boss. He still kept his distance being separated by the rack of computers circling around the Turk.

"It's six o'clock in the morning Mr. Pitt. It's quite early for your shift to begin." Weaver said still in her same position from before amused from his jumpiness from her presence.

"I'm sorry…I can leave…I just wanted to make sure the prototype was functioning well, anything out of the ordinary, that kind of thing. I wanted to make sure it was corrected since the I. Q. Party is in three days."

"Yes it is," said Weaver strolling out the walkway and outside the circle. She politely smiled at him which surprised the computer engineer and made him even more nervous.

"Thank you Mr. Pitt for being dedicated to the project," Weaver continued. "I know it's been difficult to come to work knowing you might be held at gun point again, and I'm sorry about the entire situation and thankful too. Only you protected our project from being destroyed."

Still dazed from the event remembering the two intruders and the gun pointed at the back of his skull, Brian was still enthusiastic about the project.

"I think our Babylon project is on to something," said Brian jubilantly. "The Turk can help save many lives in its quick decisions and precise calculations on air planes, further advancement in space, quicker diagnostics in hospital with lesser cost for people that are less fortunate, or help find ways to cure deadly diseases in the world such as AIDS, Cancer, or Alzheimer's, in finding answers humans can't see. I think with proper guidance the Babylon project can change the world. I just want to show that at the party."

Hearing that explanation, she knew her project was in good hands. She smirked. "The Turks knight in shinning armor. I'm counting on you Brian."

Brian eyes widen, surprised by the last word she said.

His unexpected stare caught Weaver's notice. "Is there a problem Brian?"

"Sorry…It's the first time you called me by my first name."

"That's because you earned my trust."

Weaver walked passed him and out the room leaving her employee still in disbelief by her comment and thrilled that she acknowledge his work from what he was trying to accomplish with evolving the Turk. He looked at the Turk and brightly smiled.

"Knight and shinning armor. That has a nice ring to it." Brian said and started to ready himself for his workday feeling a new surge of energy to complete his project before the I. Q. party.

* * *

Nothing starts the day then a fresh hot coffee, as Sarah enjoyed every minute of it. It's been a long time sense she had a good night sleep as she had one last night. It was nightmare free and she slept for eight hours. It was a record for her not having that much sleep since she was eighteen years old. The rest was well needed as she was still fuming about Derek's failed mission in an attempt to destroy Skynet.

Maybe she did overreact to the situation of Seen's involvement. Maybe Derek was right. She was a Resistance Fighter as her purpose was to stop Skynet. Her acting in a child like manner most of the time made her fraternal instinct kicked in dealing with her. Sarah has been wondering what happen to her parents. She knew they wouldn't send their twelve year old daughter into war from what Derek told her a couple of days ago. Or was the future that bleak having children fight adults failure to protect them from the future such as Judgment day from their greed, power and fear.

The daily newspaper on the kitchen table caught her interest as somebody brought it in from the patio this morning. She shuffled through the newspaper, skim reading each pages seeing if anything was interesting to read. She paused as three key words sent red flags in her mind. She placed her drink down and used the free hand to pick up the other side of the paper. Reading the small portion of the paper where the specific article was placed, Sarah couldn't believe what was going to happen in three days. She needed to wake everybody in the house. It required their highest priority as she was going to disturb their Saturday slumber with horrifying news.

In a fast pace walking out of the kitchen, Sarah heard movement in the basement as the door was open. She had a hunch knowing who was in the basement from not seeing John's protector in the morning in her usual window spot. Making her way down the steps, she saw Cameron staring at one of the multiple computer screens. Even though Sarah knew Cameron heard her presence, the machine didn't sway her focus from the computer screen. The way she was concentrated on the screen it was like she was actually fascinated by it. What made it even odder was that the computer was only judging the distance of each planet in the solar system.

Bizarre as it looked, Sarah ignored it and saw Cameron's partner in crime at a table a few meters from her. Surprising that the teenage girl was up in the morning, Seen was constructing something that Sarah couldn't see from her distance. What Seen was working on it required a small solder to melt the wires together.

Sarah walked over to the teenager and placed the newspaper on the table. Seen glanced up and saw the discomfort look from Sarah's expression but wasn't much alarmed by it. Knowing her luck with John's mother, Seen hoped it wasn't directed at her. It was too early in the morning to have an argument. Because of dancing around Sarah, she noticed her work was back up from the original schedule she had planned for the month. Since meeting the Connors, she's been playing catch up which could result in casualties on their end in the long run.

Oddly looking at Seen's magnifying eyeglasses as two small lenses were attached to the glasses overlapping the original lens; Sarah finally saw what the girl was working on. All she knew it was a small device no bigger then the tip of the pinky finger which required the magnifying glasses. What it was used for, Sarah wasn't sure.

"Cyberdyne's hosting a party called the I.Q. on November 18, showing the public their latest gadgets and their new A.I. prototype." Sarah explained.

Seen moved the two lens away and saw Sarah in normal vision. "Sounds interesting."

"Just interesting," Sarah looked at the girl unbelievable, thinking she would be all over it then 'just interesting'. "I guess you didn't hear me when I said Cyberdyne and A.I. prototype."

A simple smile was expressed on Seen's face which made Sarah feel both nervous and suspicious. Judging by her joyful expression, Sarah figured she was aware of the party as this started to disturb her even more about Seen's knowledge about Cyberdyne.

"Cameron," said Seen as John's protector looked at her. "Can you please wake up John and Lt. Reese for me?"

Cameron walked away from the two females and headed up the steps carrying out her order.

"I'll tell you why I'm really here in Los Angeles." Seen smirked interested how this all will play out.

In the smallest bedroom in the house which used to be a nursery room, in his sweats, Cameron saw the Resistance Fighter sleeping in his bed. Coming into the room, she noticed his closed eye lids and lips were moving repeatedly. Judging by little movements still asleep, he was dreaming. If he was a captured prisoner, a person asleep could tell valuable information that the conscious mind wouldn't be aware of, Cameron thought. Luckily, she wasn't here for that.

Standing inches away from his body, Cameron leaned over to wake the sleeping solider up. However, she halted her movements as a 9mm handgun was aimed at her right eye. Unafraid by this action, she looked at Resistance Fighter who apparently wasn't asleep anymore. Eyes scornfully glaring at the machine in front of him, Derek had his finger on the trigger ready to pull at any given second. It wouldn't kill the machine but it would give a second thought to enter his room unannounced again or enter his room period.

"Touch me and a bullet goes through your eye." Derek said viciously.

Knowing his futile attempt to shoot her with that gun was insufficient against her endoskeleton, Cameron stood up straight focused on the enraged resistance fighter.

"I was told to wake you up." Cameron said flatly.

"Get out of my room." Derek demanded.

Giving him a blank stare as her job was almost completed, Cameron left the room to finish the task Seen have given to her by waking up John.

"Metal." The disgusted Resistance Fighter circumspectly watched the machine leave his room.

Derek hastily sat up in his bed disturb that the metal was in his room. However, he wondered who sent the machine in the first place knowing how he felt about them in general. Judging by his previous actions, he had a theory who it maybe.

Entering the basement still in their pajamas being called out of their slumber, John and Derek looked at the females on the team. Derek's deadly glare keyed in on Sarah as he saw the machine walked passed him and stood next to Seen.

"Was that payback?" Derek said in a low voice towards Sarah as he walked passed her.

Confused by that comment, Sarah looked at John's uncle and then at Cameron as she finally understood his words. She wished it was her idea knowing his hatred for the machine. Something inside of her didn't want to stop Cameron's action from the beginning when Seen requested the task for her. A little harmless revenge never hurt anybody, Sarah thought.

"It's a Saturday morning, so unless a war broke out, why am I up at eight o'clock. The whole part of the weekend is to sleep in." John said looking at the female trio still half asleep.

Sarah handed Derek the newspaper. He was puzzled by her actions at first, but then saw Cyberdyne in black bold print and started to read the article immediately.

"Cyberdyne is launching a party called the I.Q. that's been in the works for a little over a month. Their showing the new A.I. prototype to the higher rich people, CEO's of other technology companies and my favorite the United States military weapons specialist will attend as well. If the Turk is ready for a trail run, it will attract our unusual crowd of people, people we don't want near it." Seen explained.

"How you know about the guest coming? It's not stated anywhere in the article." Derek asked placing the newspaper on the table.

Seen stood up from her chair and started to walk towards the rack of computers. "Unlike you Lt. that had specific orders coming to the past, I was only given one vague order. John Connor needs an engineer, find him and make sure Judgment Day doesn't happen. Pretty simple right. Unfortunately, when I came back, I couldn't find John because you were still skipping through time as you guys explained it. I've been doing homework…well a lot of homework on how to achieve the second part of my mission. Prevent Judgment Day. However, preventing Judgment Day is a little bigger then what we think. Every badass wants to take down another badass in this time. The only way one can achieve this goal is by one thing and one thing only. Money."

The Connors and Derek look at her on where she was going with this story and how this was going to help them with taking down Cyberdyne. Unlike the others, Cameron wasn't confused and started to piece the puzzle together from what Seen was telling them.

"I noticed being in this time different color paper is placed higher than human lives. Which is pretty sad actually," said Seen still having a difficult time accepting the actions humans take during this time compared to the future. Money didn't exist only surviving did during post-Judgment Day.

"The only way you're going to slow Skynet down is take away what's feeding it," said Seen continuing. "Which let's us have the advantage over it. We're going to be Skynet's Trojan Horse."

The engineer smiled at the group, amused by their perplexed expressions.

"Skynet's Trojan Horse?" Derek looked at her baffled.

John smiled the way Seen phrased the comparison. "It's a simple tactical attack on an enemy. Command officers go after their enemy to cripple them by destroying weapon stash that's located in a bunker, underground tunnels, or in a building that they use for resources. While right now Skynet's weapon stash is money which makes the brains of the people constructing the Turk happy. If you take that away, the people advancing the Turk will not be enthusiastic in proceeding with the project. People can become very dangerous when money is taken away from them, which is where the computer reference of the Trojan Horse idea comes in. It's a silent killer and less causality on our end."

Impressed then the others in the group, Seen stared at John. It was a first time hearing it from him which sounded like the John she knew in the future. She hasn't seen this type of accessing tactical skills from him, until now.

John saw her curious look. "What, you think you're the only one that knows about military tactics."

"No, just an underestimated number I was thinking." Seen smiled referring to his abilities in which he was going to need it for what she had in store for him.

"So how do we take away this _money_?" Sarah asked still puzzled how Seen was going to play this to their advantage.

Finally assessing the entire conversation and studying Seen's body language as her smirk concluded her theory and the answer to Sarah's question, Cameron understood the plan her friend already had constructed.

"You want us to sneak into the party." Cameron said.

"Sneak…into the party? How's this supposed to help us besides getting us all killed?" Sarah asked with an unbelievable expression across her face. She hoped she remembered the conversation between them a month back about wanting to get everybody killed, do it by herself.

Next to a keyboard, Seen picked up a small square sized device, smaller then a human hand that resembled a beacon one would place on an animal. She handed the object to Sarah as she inspected it. As it didn't look interesting, she wondered why the girl gave it to her.

"What is it?' Sarah finally asked.

"We can't stop the party from happening," said Seen as that part was evident from the first time hearing about the event. "Actually it's our perfect cover. We want the party to happen."

"Wait what?" Derek asked at a loss from that plan. If the Turk was showed to the public they were all doomed. If it was him it would be done 'the Derek way' with lots of explosives that could level an entire city block.

"The party is being held at Catherine Weaver's own personal estate," Seen continued. "Yes, there'll be well equip guards and yes there'll be many guest of honor in which _they_ bring unknown friends. I came to L.A. originally to attend that party."

From where the small device was acquired, a large brown circular tube, one would transport paintings and construction blueprint documents in, was next to it as Seen picked it up. Walking over to the group, Seen took off the cap, placed it upside down for the document to fall out easier and placed it on the table. She opened the document by placing a stapler and three cups on the four corners to keep it from unveiling. Curious of what she was doing, the group gathered around the table in a circle, looking at a blueprint.

"Money can be your enemy or your friend," said Seen as she pointed in the middle of document. "Almost every house built in L.A. is documented and which most include blueprints especially for the wealthy community. As you can see, it looks pretty easy to just sneak into her house unannounced, but Weaver is smarter then she looks. When it comes to her alarm system it's top notch created by a Swedish lab tech, a very brilliant guy in the computer engineer department which is why Weaver sought him out personally. Something off the record and untraceable to be broken in, than the regular run of the mill alarm that can be controlled at a central station in the country. The Swedish tech and I had some personal words when he visited New York three months ago."

"It's how this little baby," Seen showed the small device to them again. "…is going to hack into Weavers alarm system and gain us access to all her files on her mainframe located in the basement level in her home. This device has an exact code number the system has when it changes its number code every ten minutes."

"Every ten minutes…you have to be hiding something big to have a security system to function like that." John said scratching his head how complex it would be to break a security code sophisticated such as that.

Judging by Seen's explanation, Sarah hoped the lab tech didn't share the same fate like Andy Goode. "Where's the Swedish tech now?"

"I gave him a reality check on life. Who do you think helped me came up with this device in a short period of time. He works for me now." Seen explained.

"You don't say," Sarah stated not sure if that's a good or bad idea coming from Seen's mouth. "But still how do we get in? This place is like Disney land."

"I got the invitations…However theirs a catch."

Sarah smirked how ironic that word sounds to her. Theirs always a catch in a plan they construct. To tell the truth she wouldn't want it any other way.

"I've been observing all of you on your capabilities in the recent situations we have encountered. I would like to attend the party but Derek or I would be arrested on the spot with our little past stunt. So you three are going to have to go in and do the job yourselves." Seen smiled at Sarah, John and Cameron.

Surprised and thinking she was crazy, especially when her _son_ was being implemented into the plan, that's where the breaks are stopped, Sarah thought.

"Wait, what?" Sarah gave her a peculiar look from her comment. "No. John can not be exposed and there will be cameras there. The answer is no."

"Then the mission will fail before it's begins," said Seen seriously. "I don't believe in praying and hope for the best in a high situation such as this. I look at possibilities. With you and Cameron, it will not work as your actions will alert Weaver's security guards suspicions. I've already done two hundred possibilities and only came up with one plan that was an eighty-five percent chance."

Seen started to slide her finger on the blueprint map starting to explain the areas where the team needs to be. "Sarah you will infiltrates the basement level in the main command room, Cameron will read every person at the party to help us identify for our future references and becomes Sarah's backup. John's the lookout where the cameras have blind spots in which he will be my backup eyes to make sure we are not compromised."

Seen placed the small device on the blueprint where the main command room was. "Sarah when you get to the basement level, you connect this device to the mainframe hard-lines that will gain us the access we need. We can figure out who, what, when, where and how the money is routing and freeze it. Paranoia will play into our game as Weaver will play on our terms. Our calls, our rules. In order to make this work we need everybody on board Sarah, including John. There's always a risk on a mission. If we don't do this now, the development of Skynet may accelerate much faster then anticipated."

"You're saying that Judgment Day could happen sooner?" John asked worried by her words.

"We're already changing the future. It's fair game at this point." Seen said as this was the reason why she wanted to attend the party. Time was difficult to predict the outcome of their involvement of affecting the future. She had to be cautious and take the opportunity when it landed at their feet.

Sarah was caught in a dilemma. John's safety always came first for her before he was born and now she was throwing him into the lions den. The detailed explanation Seen explained, Sarah wanted to believe the plan will work but her mind was telling her no. He could be exposed or better yet killed and it would be her fault.

"I can do this," said John determined as he looked at his mother. "We may not get an opportunity like this again in stopping Skynet. And where going to take it, right now."

"If where going to do this, it needs to be done properly. No failures." Derek stated and looked at Sarah as it was her call. Although impressed, the plan was plausible in his book.

Sarah finally made her decision and hoped it was for the best. "The party is in three days. Let's get to work."

* * *

An assemble line of unfinished Ford cars were moving down a conveyor belt. Workers and other mechanical machines were working along side one another, building the cars to become complete before the next shipment. Observing the union between both species, Dealer was in the main office booth looking through a large bullet proof window, fixated how the cars were being built. The entire process felt nostalgic standing in the car factory.

"The I.Q. party is in three days. It should turn out interesting. I wonder who's going to show up." Dealer smirked. A hunch told her the target she's been searching for might pay a surprise visit.

"The guests will show up." Barrack responded standing by the door a few feet away from her.

"Not those guests who can't see pass their pockets but…the uninvited guests."

"Are we going to attend as the uninvited guests?"

Dealer sighed. "Even though I want to stay hidden from the public eye, however, I know something will happen. It always does when where not at the exact moment in time."

"So that means we are attending the I.Q. party." Barrack stated sensing that from her enthusiastic reaction to the situation. He was very good at understanding that about Dealer and probably the only person. Very unpredictable many would say about her which was why she was still alive than the rest of her family.

"No worries Barrack, we'll still remain unseen to not compromise our true mission," Dealer turned around and smiled at her protector to reassure him. "I'm not that insane. We came back for a reason and I intent to fulfill it as well as the rest of us. Besides, humans most of the time doesn't pay attention to details like they do in the future. Quite frankly they still didn't then, but those that do are who we must watch out for. The engineer will hide in plan site."

Dealer smirked. "She's defiantly John's protégé."

Walking over to Barrack, she walked over a man's dead body on the floor on her way, undisturbed from the pool of blood seeping out of his body staining the carpet.

"What to know what I think?" With a gun in her hand, Dealer placed it back in her holster inside her jacket and looked at her old friend. "I believe Mr. Connor was training her for something else. I think her coming to the past was actually a mistake. He was training her incase he couldn't lead anymore to take his place if the time comes. You know the Resistance Fighter's slogan, besides 'kill the machines'. Survive. Destroy metal. And train the next son of bitch that's crazier then you to take your place in battle."

Dealer remembered the security surveillance she acquired from Cyberdyne's recent attack. She knew the engineer made contact with other Resistance Fighters in the past. Lt. Derek Reese data file she collected from Skynet's information bank on human personal, confirmed her theory. If the engineer already found the Resistance Fighters located in Los Angeles in a short period of time, it wouldn't be long before she found John Connor, or she may already found him.

Barrack glanced at his leader's focused expression on her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Dealer smiled. "Just more complications."

Barrack looked out the window outlining the wiring throughout the building. "This place reminds me of something."

"Skynet controls this place in the future. You were built here. Now we own it. Get somebody to clean this mess up in ten minutes. I guess money doesn't buy everything." Dealer said and walked out of the room.

Barrack followed his leader leaving the aftermath of four dead men with bullets riddled into their bodies. The men not accepting Dealer's offer in buying the place resulted in their deaths as she had no time to play with the court system or black mailing them to handle the situation. Time was not on her side as she had to make sure to secure a future where machines exist but in her vision.

* * *

Multiple white miniature vans were lined up at a car lot as Derek and John was inspecting the different designs from each of them. Derek remembered the picture Seen showed him of which van to purchase as it had to be specific in the job they were going to accomplish. Coming to one van, striking a resemblance to the van they needed, Derek looked inside the window of the vehicle.

"This will do." Derek said tapping on the window finding one of the items they needed on their mission list.

"You think this plan will work?" John asked observing the parking lot, an old habit that he couldn't break and probably never will.

"Nervous?"

"No…well kind of." John answered. He said he could handle the mission earlier but this was his first actual mission. If he failed at his job then the entire mission will be compromised by his rookie carelessness.

Derek saw the doubt in his nephew eyes. "What do you think of her?"

Out of the ordinary for his uncle to say and caught off guard how that question was worded, John felt uncomfortable what his uncle was implying.

"Excuse me…think of her…_Seen_?" John asked apprehensively.

"Who else you think I'm talking about?" Derek said and went back to inspecting the van again.

"Depends on what you mean by your question?" John knew he was dancing around the question. If his uncle thought he had feelings for Seen more then just a friend, then he was getting mixed messages. He only thought of her as a friend. A weird friend, but that was normal in the Connor's family book.

"Do you see her as a normal girl or a Resistance Fighter?"

"I don't…"

Derek glanced at John as his question was giving his nephew the wrong impression which hinted the hesitation in his answer earlier. "If you look at her like a normal girl you're going to doubt every mission she creates which can lead to a mission failure. You think of her as a Resistance Fighter, you'll doubt the mission, but you'll want to make the mission a success because you're confident in her abilities to make sure everybody comes back alive."

Derek smirked meeting Seen the first time which surprised him. "The funny thing is I was like you right now. I actually thought she was a teenage boy with all the gear she wore in the future. It was Kyle who told me she was a girl. She saved us both on a mission once. We were pinned down by the machines and she led a team in and got us out. E.R.T. style. General Neil ran the E.R.T division in Tech-Com, so the Kid was trained by the best. That's why this plan's gonna work."

John looked at his uncle, confident in Seen's capabilities. Though he only saw this type of soldier from Seen when they were being chased a few weeks ago, but it was still hard for him to believe Seen as a great commanding officer. Her childlike behavior makes it difficult for people to see it inside of her. Quite frankly, John thought that's was the way Seen wanted it, a tactical way to fool the enemies and underestimate her abilities. It was probably why she survived by herself in the past without their interference.

A salesman approach them smiling at the two young men in front of him. "Hello my name is Author Grant. Can I help you find a great car, truck or van you're interested in today?"

"Yes. I would like to buy this van." Derek said already picked out his vehicle.

* * *

A cashier at a Home Depot store placed an item in a bag and helped place the bag in the orange shopping chart, as the person walked away thanking the cashier for her kindness. However, the cashier smile disappeared as she was in disbelief from her next customer's approaching with her shopping cart. The shopping chart was filled with items that a teenage girl doesn't buy, and not by themselves either without a male presence.

Unaffected by the cashier awkward stare as well as the men behind her from what she had in her chart, Cameron continued to put her items on the counter. It was the long list she stored in her database, that was required to mask their new vehicle that John and Derek was acquiring at the dealership.

Masking tape, tarp, paper, car washing detergent, brush, wax/grease remover, fine and thick grit sandpaper, Primer, Paint Urethane-based, Paint Sprayer, dust mask, goggles, putty and knife was placed on the counter.

The cashier had a hard time keeping up with the items Cameron was placing on the counter with ease, especially with the gallon of paint cans. Luckily another cashier was assisting the overwhelmed cashier to keep the line moving and started to bag the items. Cameron dug into her pocket and pulled out a thick roll of cash wrapped around a rubber band that Seen gave to her to spend. The people around her were surprised that a girl carried that much money and not use a credit card to pay for the purchase. That was considered dangerous during these times with the crime rate going up in Los Angeles.

Without acknowledging the bizarre stare from others expression, Cameron precisely placed out the exact amount of cash required to pay for the items on the counter and looked at the casher. After taking several minutes of bagging everything, the cashier totaled everything.

"Okay that will be…."

"Two thousand four hundred and fifty-one dollars and thirty-four cents." Cameron said in her usual monotone voice.

The cashier and the bagger that helped her in assistance gave the girl a dumbstruck look from her answer as it was the same count on the register monitor. What made it even more bizarre was that the monitor wasn't positioned towards Cameron to see the total. The cashier and customers unreal stare finally hinted to Cameron from the answer she blurted out, that she was freaking people out again as John would say to her. She had to think of something to say to throw them off, something she learned from her teacher. Lie.

"I used a calculator." Cameron said and kindly smiled at them.

* * *

Grabbing a hot dog from a hot dog stand, Seen licked her fingers from the ketchup and mustard dripping from the messy hot dog, enjoying every minute of it. Walking alongside her observing their surrounding, Sarah was unsure why they were at this location. This behavior of not knowing there destination, reminded her from Cameron's irregular actions, like future John sending back Resistance Fighters, the bank volt created for time traveling or hiding Vick's chip. Or could it be another one of Seen's child like behavior again of just wanting to buy a hot dog. Sarah head started to hurt from figuring this out.

Finally, Sarah asked, "Why are we here?"

Finishing her hot dog, Seen glanced at a mid thirty year old woman sitting alone at a table then directly back at Sarah.

"I wanted to get a hot dog." Seen smiled already finishing her lunch.

"We have hot dogs at the house." Sarah said not convinced by her answer.

"Comic book store down the street."

"It's not Tuesday yet."

Oddly looking at John's mother, it was apparent that she was starting to understand her pattern. Seen wasn't sure if that was a good or bad idea to insure that she could still be able to falsely lie to her in the future. She liked to keep her options always open.

The woman she previously glanced at was starting to leave her table and walking towards them.

"Just follow my lead." Seen said serious as there was no time for Sarah to be debriefed into her plan which was about to began in seven seconds.

Sarah recognized the change in tone from Seen's voice as her eyes followed the engineer. Their location, although still confusing to her, she wondered was it for this woman approaching them. Then in a split second Seen's eyes looked in another direction as if deliberately to ignore her.

Without looking where she was going, the unknown woman and Seen bumped into each other.

"Oh I'm sorry." The woman said politely.

"No it's me. I wasn't looking where I was going," said Seen smiling at the lady. Her total behavior changed into one of the roles she was good at portraying, a geeky tech teenager, which was her best option to play with somebody such as this woman.

"I know you." Seen said excited looking at John's mother as Sarah was clueless on the situation.

"Excuse me?" The woman asked confused.

"You're Melissa Earlacker. Oh. My. God. Mom its Melissa Earlacker," Seen said her name repeatedly.

This put the woman on the spot smiling at the teenager.

"Mom her husband is the CEO of BrimWar corporation one of the top five technology industries in the world in the medical field. It's a pleasure to meet you and here of all places."

"This is surprising…I never had a fan before," said Meslissa, intrigued that a teenage girl would know her husband's corporation and status in the world. It was unusual in today's world for teenage girls. "It's nice to meet you. Your name is…"

"Seen Manhattan."

"Wow…that's…an interesting name for a girl. It stands out more from the crowd." Melissa said looking at Sarah strangely.

"It stands out alright." Sarah surprising smiled.

"I've been a fan of you and your husband, and also interested in your work of almost close to creating the next A.I. computer."

The word A.I. made Sarah glance at her fake daughter suspiciously. It was starting to make since why Seen pursued this woman as Sarah was now playing into Seen's game.

"Yeah, yeah it's been my husband and my dream in developing one. Not closely their yet, but give us a couple more years and it may be done. With technology advancing so quickly we may have a full functioning A.I in less then three years."

"When I get straight out of college I told my mother I wanted to work for BrimWar industry from the great work you guys created for research hospital in furthering the development in finding cures for rare cancer diseases. You guys are already heroes in the medical field and I wanted to be apart of that in the future." Seen said enthusiastic.

"Never know. We're always looking for young minds to give BrimWar fresh starts in our company on new inventions. Sounds like you're already on the right path and you're mother sure is very proud of you as your goal already set for college." Melissa smiled at Sarah.

"Very proud." Sarah forced a smile as she has no idea about Seen's background and the problems in dealing with her.

"Are you attending the I.Q. party that Cyberdyne's having on Tuesday? They say they're also close to creating a fully working A.I. themselves. They say it's going to blow us away." Seen stated.

"It my just do that." Sarah sarcastically said referring it to Judgment Day.

Melissa was amused by Sarah's comment as she had no idea what Cyberdynes pet project will actually do to the world in less then four years.

"Yes we are attending the party." Melissa said.

"Wow, I wish I could go there to get a first glance at it. I guess you're not invited if you don't have big money." Seen said sounding sincere about her predicament. In truth she didn't have the invitation to get into the party in which she needed to hatch their true intentions.

Melissa saw the sadden expression on the girl's face and couldn't help herself. "You know what, I hated that when I was your age too. Big suits and their money. How about we exchange numbers and I'll see what I can do."

"Really, you don't have to go through all of this for us." Sarah said.

"That would be great. My brother would want to go too." Seen added.

"Then it's settled," Melissa said and dug in her pocket book and gave them her business card as Sarah took it. Seen wrote their number on a small notebook paper and handed it to Melissa.

"Just give me until Monday. It was nice meeting you Seen and Mrs. Manhattan." Melissa looked at Sarah not catching her first name. "I see you later then."

"Thank you so much for doing this for her again." Sarah said in an appreciative voice.

"Thanks!" Seen gave her one last enthusiastic smile.

Melissa walked away from the thrilled mother and daughter and continued to her car. A few seconds passed as Seen dropped the act and looked at Sarah.

"Nice acting mom."

Sarah smirked as she was amused and disturbed by those words. "Please don't call me mom. When you said you were going to get the invitations to the party, was she apart of that plan."

"Yes."

"You think she will come through?"

"Yup."

"You seem confident in a stranger you just met." Sarah said. Unlike Seen, if their new friend won't be able to acquire the invitations then the plan will fail. Everything they done today would be for nothing as this didn't set well with her at all.

"A stranger that is an over achiever, have three children, likes watching sports with her family, her favorite baseball team is the White Socks by the way. Her husband and her is ranked number three in the Beer club bowling league they like to compete every Thursday and Friday and sometimes Saturday depending on their work schedule. She likes to be active in the Go Green campaign in saving our world, and also activist in No Child Left Behind program." Seen explained as she smiled at John's mother insisting she wasn't a stranger to her and does her homework very thoroughly in all her plans.

"Here I thought she was just some random person."

"Nobodies random. Not when I met them."

"Of course not…and your impressive story as well." Sarah said apprehensive about Seen's capabilities of lying. Her story and acting was flawless and disturbing the more she thought about it. She wondered does the girl lie to her when she tells her information. If Seen does, how much and how long have she been doing it.

"Thank you." Seen replied to her comment and saw Cameron pulled up to the curb in the mini van to pick them up. Numerous bags from her Home Depot trip were placed in the trunk area of the jeep as part of the plan was going accordingly.

Sarah looked at John's protector and then at the engineer as both girls shared similar characteristics. "I can see why John chose you to be a wonderful role model to Cameron. Lie, cheat, steal."

"I try my best." Seen smiled at John's mother and got into the back seat of the jeep.

"This is going to be wonderful…Just wonderful." Sarah shook her head and opened the passenger side door.

It wasn't even the end of Saturday as three days was going to be a long time before the time commences to infiltrate Cyberdyne's party. Sarah prayed they would be able to pull the job off or Seen's vision of Judgment Day coming closer would plague her mind every waking minute if the mission failed.


	14. IQ Party Part 2

**Chapter 11- I.Q. Party Part 2**

The purchased white van that John and Derek acquired at the dealer ship was being repainted with specific symbols and markings that resembled the company van they wanted it to mimic. It took almost five hours to complete the task as the inside the van was left last. The inside needed extra attention that John and Seen have been working on the entire day placing computer equipment inside of the van.

On top of the van Derek placed a steal mount and used a drill and stainless steel nails to keep it in place. Sarah came over with a large ladder in her hand and hoisted it up. Seeing her struggle with it, Cameron decided to help her as this made Sarah let go of the ladder. The machine superior strength lifted the ladder above her head with ease. Carefully to not fall off the hood of the van, Derek took the ladder from Cameron and positioned it onto of the mount holding the ladder in place.

It was finally done as it took them almost two days to accomplish the task. They all stood back from their creation as they were surprised from the turnout.

"It looks exactly like it." Derek said impressed.

"I thought about stealing one. Unfortunately, stealing a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power vehicle these days will go on the books and could be track to us. Why not just create one yourself and use it for so much more." Seen smiled gazing at the van as it was perfect.

Seen looked at her watch as they still had plenty of time before the store closed. "Now comes the hard part."

Sarah glanced at her curious. "Hard part?"

The engineer smirked. "The hard part in making you three look like fashion icons at the party."

The Connor's and Cameron looked at each other puzzled and then at Seen unsure what her meaning meant.

* * *

In a high priced fashion store, four specialists had name brand dresses in their hands of different color, fabric and style for their best client that always shops for evening attire for her special events. The specialists were running around the store matching up almost every dress with shoes, jewelry, and shawls to accommodate Weaver's liking. But what they brought together did not fit her taste as she disapproved of all of them.

Displeased at what they were showing, Weaver shook her head as some of the dresses resembled the same design dresses she already owned. She thought about going to another store to find the perfect dress after spending almost two hours in the shop. However, time was running out as the party was almost here.

A migraine started to emerge as this event was important to her and the corporation. Everything had to be perfect including her in what she wore, Weaver thought.

A digital noise caught her attention as her cell phone rung. The number displayed on the screen read 'Blocked' as she was curious who would call her on a secured line.

"Hello." She answered it by wanting to know who was on the receiving end.

"Having trouble finding your dress?"

Weaver smirked hearing the familiar voice.

"Hello Dealer. How did you know I was at a store buying a dress?" Weaver asked curious. She started to look outside the store's windows, searching through the crowded sidewalks of anything suspicious.

"I asked Lisa your secretary."

"Of course you did. If you're worried about the party tomorrow then everything is going according to plan. The prototype is ready to go." Weaver stated from the events that will happen tomorrow.

"I already know it's ready," said Dealer, paying a visit to Cyberdyne without Weaver knowledge. "I just wanted to say the guests are only interested in the Turk or project _Babylon_ as you call it. You can dress up like a clown as along as you give them a show."

Weaver slightly smiled. "A joke. That's new."

"I'm always joking." Dealer said and hung up her phone.

Barrack, Dealer's bodyguard, came into the bedroom with a dress bag in his hand and shoe box in the other as he placed them on the bed. Dealer looked at him in confusion and placed her cell phone on the dresser. Unzipping the bag, Barracks laid out the stylish black dress on the bed, carefully to not rankle it and placed the black strapped high heel shoes next to it as well.

"I'm not wearing that." Dealer said seriously.

"What were you thinking in blending in as, a security guard?" Barrack asked.

Dealer looked at him. "Yes."

"Weaver doesn't have any female guards. She thinks they will distract her men from doing their job."

"Wearing a dress will get me killed," Dealer protested. "I can't hide any weapons when wearing that. I have a lot of enemies out there. And also since when did you become into fashion, even though this would look…actually nice on me."

"Julia suggested it. She told me not to let you go as a security guard knowing you were thinking that. She also said she will force you to wear it if you consider not too. Those were her full words."

"What is she my mother? Maybe I should have left her in the future." Dealer said shaking her head from that woman nagging her all the time.

Being the leader of the group, Dealer always felt like a child around Julia even though that woman was older then all of them. Dealer lightly touched her head forming a headache wondering what she was going to do about that woman's controlling ways.

* * *

It was Monday afternoon and everything was ready for the mission, well almost as Seen was still waiting for the call from Melissa Earlacker on the invitations. She needed them in less then forty-eight hours or everything they accomplish was for nothing. She wanted to believe Sarah suggestion in not trusting Melissa for the job, but Seen knew that woman determined personality was not going to fail her. That's why she chose her for this mission as she would do anything to not disappoint the promises she keeps.

Her cell phone rings as it was what Seen was waiting for. It was Melissa Earlacker and she wanted her to come to her office. Seen sounded thrilled on the phone still keeping the fake act. This delighted her day as she asked Sarah to take her to BrimWar Corporation downtown in Los Angeles.

Upon arriving to the building, Seen was fascinated from the design as it was one of the numerous skyscraper buildings that added to the many structure of Los Angeles. In astonishment, Seen walked into the building to the front desk telling the security guard she was sent by Mrs. Earlacker. The guard was already informed by his employer about Seen's presence and told her directions to find her office.

Following his instructions, Seen made her way to the twenty fifth floor and made it to her destination. Mrs. Earlacker secretary instructed her to head inside her office as the doors were already opened and waiting for her entrance.

The big spaced office looked like it could be its own bunker. It never impressed the engineer how far humans will go for luxury. Luxury in the future was ones own bed and maybe a room if ones lucky to achieve high in ranks in Tech-Com.

"This is your office?" Seen asked astonished by the interior and spectacular design that suited the office size.

She walked over to her office desk and sat in a chair in front smiling at the woman but still aware of her surroundings. She already figured out the two exit routes to escape the office and seven routes to escape the building if danger occurred.

Mrs. Earlacker was already seated in her chair rearranging a few files on her desk.

"Nice isn't it," she said smiling at the enthusiastic child acknowledging her gaze upon her office. "I told my husband we didn't need it but he wanted to impress the big suits in the industry. However, I have good news and bad news."

Right away Seen knew the bad news wasn't going to settle to her liking. If the bad news was what she thought it would be then she would have to resort to plan B which required more work on their end. It was something she tried to deviate from this time on a mission.

Mrs. Earlacker had a yellow envelope on her desk, and handed it to Seen as she took it. Unsure what it was, Seen opened the envelope as it was three beautiful designed invitations. It was invitations to Cyberdyne's I.Q. party. Seen eyes widen in excitement as they were authentic.

"You got the invitations," said Seen elated but quickly become curious from what the woman said before. "Wait, what's the bad news?"

"My husband and I have to leave tomorrow on abrupt trip and won't make it back in time so…"

"You only had one extra ticket from the beginning. Not going that's the two extra tickets. I know what you're doing and you really don't have too." Seen said feeling guilty that she was sacrificing herself and husband to not attend the party for her expense.

"Seen," Mrs. Earlacker got up from her chair and walked around her desk. She stood in front of the girl and humorously smiled at her that she was bright in understanding what she was doing which impressed her. She might have a future in her company after all, she thought.

"You been to one party you been to them all. Besides my husband has an ego in not wanting to see his competition's work. He wants to do his own inventions. So don't worry about it. You take your family, have fun and give me a book report about the party when the craziness is all done." Mrs. Earlacker smiled indicating that she was fine with the idea.

Not feeling too much guilt about the situation from Mrs. Earlacker's laid back approach to the matter, Seen slightly smiled.

"Thank you. This means a lot to me." Seen said and stood up from the chair.

For once the bad and good news turned out to be all good in the end, Seen thought. Almost about to leave the office, Seen looked at the ticket and stopped her pace. She turned around and glanced at Mrs. Earlacker already at her desk looking through files she needed to attend too.

"Mrs. Earlacker," said Seen as this grabbed the woman's attention. "Don't let competition go to Mr. Earlacker's head in enjoying his work. Take care of the A.I. you are creating, and make sure you use it to help others no matter what _they_ offer the company."

Curious and unsure by what she meant by her words, Mrs. Earlacker stared at the young girl. She heard concern and sadness in her voice the way the request sounded. It was as if it was a warning but she wasn't sure why.

Seen vaguely smiled and walked out of her office leaving the woman to ponder over her request.

* * *

The time has finally come as everything was prepared for the plan to commence. The I.Q. Party was about to begin in less then thirty minutes.

Walking into the living room with a duffle bag and white helmet in her hand, Seen placed them both on the couch. Wearing jeans, white long sleeve shirt, and High Viz yellow jacket with a patch stitched on the back of it saying LADWP, she looked exactly like a technician worker for the company.

"Sure you know this plan is going to work?" Derek asked coming towards her.

"I guess we won't know until two hours lieutenant." Seen responded, double checking everything inside her bag.

"Right answer." Derek placed a shotgun on the circled table in the middle of the room.

The weapon caught Seen's interest as she oddly looked at her commanding officer.

"I don't think we'll need that." Seen suggested. She wasn't planning on blasting somebody into smithereens tonight.

Derek started to load the gun with shotgun shells. "You never know in our line of work."

"She's right. Leave the shotgun behind."

Derek smirked as if waiting to hear Sarah's voice about his choice of weapons. In truth he would feel disappointed if he didn't hear her ranting at all.

"I rather be prepar…" Derek paused and looked at Sarah as she was looking into the mirror in the dinning room, making sure her hair was perfect. Her black glamorous dress she was wearing made Derek quickly turn another direction as he continued to finish reloading his gun.

The quietness in the house made Sarah looked at the two Resistance Fighters anomalously. Derek was evading her gaze while Seen gave her two thumbs up like a child.

"What's the matter with you two?" Sarah said coming over to them.

"Maybe I should just send Cameron and John to the party," said Seen humorously as she never saw Sarah in a dress than her normal commando appearance. "Word of advice Sarah, just talk about stuff that sounds interesting if asked. I don't think they will even care if it's not about computers."

"Why would you say that?"

"From what I understand, men like to talk to pretty girls no matter what their saying." Seen smiled.

Maybe sending Sarah may cause too much attention from the way she was dressed. It was an attention grabber in which they couldn't afford at the party. They needed to be incognito and Sarah stunning appearance was going making that difficult.

Glancing down at her watch, Seen walked over to the base of the staircase and looked up.

"Two Minutes!" Seen shouted.

"Okay!" John yelled back.

Feeling nervous about the mission, John mentally was preparing himself all day. Because of his nervousness, attending school became a non-factor considering it was a weekday. He attempted to deviate the free time he had before the mission to occupy his time, but it was difficult. He barely attained any sleep the night before because of the mission.

Watching Seen through the whole ordeal, he wondered how she was keeping her calm composure. She wasn't even affected by it unlike him, just like the time when they were fleeing from her burning apartment. Maybe he should have asked for some pointers to ease his anxiety. He had to be on point for the success of the mission and failure was not an option.

But first things first, he had to fix his tie as he was fiddling with it for the past five minutes.

Wearing a Calvin Klein three-button, blue tic side-vented suit they brought from a high price fashion store downtown, with his short hair jelled up, John played the part of having money just like his other family members attending the party. Looking in the mirror a couple of times while placing the suit on, he was quiet surprised how it fitted on him.

It was Seen who brought everything with her credit card. To his knowledge it was properly stolen like he used when getting money from a credit card machine when he was younger. Either way, the costly expense didn't have to resort in selling anymore of their diamonds just yet.

Frustrated and starting to sweat which was not a good thing in ruining his brand new suit, John took off the tie again. He exhaled and then tried again. It was times like this; he wished his father was alive to teach him this stuff. It would save him the headache he was forming to accomplish a tedious small task.

"Do you need assistance?"

John heard a voice behind him "Yeah that would be great."

He turned around but was stunned by his protector's appearance. Cameron's black dress and the way it hugged her body could stop any guy in their tracks. Her pulled up hair do with a few strands of hair coming down on both sides her cheeks, polished make up, as if she needed any, stylish shoes and jewelry, she looked as if she was attending a prom.

The curious look she was giving him, John wondered did the temperature rise in the room again. His uneasiness sky rocketed again. To not cause to much awkwardness in the room, John cleared his throat and slightly smiled at Cameron.

Cameron didn't ignore his discomfort by her appearance as she stored the behavior in her database for future missions when it presented itself. She walked into his childlike setting room as John gave her the tie. She took it from him and started to place it around his neck.

John tired his hardest not to stare at Cameron but her appearance was making it difficult. He had to calm himself which mostly lead to him having to talk.

"You look…you look very nice." John said stumbling over his words.

"Thank you, and so do you." Cameron said responding to the compliment while continuing her side objective.

The light touch she did in the beginning when placing the tie around his neck, Cameron analyzed his biomarkers, noticing John was troubled about something else besides the way she looked. Using her psychology skills, it was best she asked now or it might affect his judgmental ability during the mission.

"You're nervous John." Cameron said still focused on his tie.

"Who wouldn't be," said John knowing he couldn't fool Cameron about his discomfort. "If anything goes wrong we're all ending up in a federal prison."

"I'm not nervous." Cameron commented to his first remark. She was done with his tie as it was perfectly straight.

"Yeah well you're you," John smirked.

He looked into the mirror and examined her work. Impressed, he should have asked her sooner about her hidden talent that some times sprung up when convenient.

"When you learn how to tie a tie?"

"Television," Cameron slightly smiled as she noticed the conversation did loosen him up. She glanced at the alarm clock on his dresser as it was time. "It's time to leave."

Coming down the stairs, Derek looked at John and then the machine. He grunted in disgust how the machine was dressed and walked out the front door first. Before Seen could follow him, she handed Sarah the invitations to the party and three small ear pieces that was invisible to see to the naked eye. Sarah took them and handed one ear piece to Cameron and John.

"Just stick to the plan and we'll be back before school starts tomorrow." Seen said excited.

John chuckled from her sarcastic comment. They all knew Seen hated school.

"Let's go." Sarah said.

* * *

In an auditorium small room inside Weaver's estate, dressed up in a suit to match the part he was playing today for the important event for Cyberdyne, Brian was setting up the Turk for its official first trial run. The room was empty so it was just him and the Turk renamed now as John Henry. It was a name he gave it since he felt it needed a name besides calling _The Turk_ or _it _all the time. In some way he felt like a surrogate parent to John Henry but he liked to be preferred to as an older brother. That sounded more comfortable around him then a parent figure. He was too childish to be one of those yet.

Finally placing a last wire in place, everything was done. Nervous, as his heart couldn't stop beating since he was told he would be presenting John Henry to the public, his eyes wondered around the empty seats in the room. He had to convince these people that John Henry could help others in the future.

Placing his hand on the plastic box of where John Henry was stored into, Brian smirked.

"We're going to change lives soon. Just need a little bit more money for that to happen." Brian said talking to John Henry as if he was a person, a little brother to make big brother proud of him.

During the interaction shadowed in the back, Dealer watched the man and the computer. Her hunch about the young man was right; she could count on him since it was her that recommended him to Weaver's team in the first place.

Dressed up in an eloquent black dress hand picked by her associates, Dealer entered the main room as the party has already begun.

* * *

Stepping out of a Ram jeep, being the personal brand rides to the Connor family, a chauffeur opened the door for Sarah as he greeted her kindly. Two other chauffeurs opened the other passenger doors as John and Cameron stepped out of the jeep being treated like movie stars.

Looking around the area, being on enemy territory, John and the others were already examining the exit routes and the guards placed outside the mansion. Every little detail helped incase they needed to abort the mission and make a clean escape.

Making their way into Weaver's estate, Sarah and John was amazed how beautiful it was structured. It resembled a palace, from the high fashion decorations, furniture, the mounted chandelier in the main room, to the expensive paintings, it made the house extravagate.

"Where is she getting her money?" John asked astonished by the design as they were walking into the main room following the crowd of guests.

"That's what we're here to find out." Sarah responded.

She already examined the entire floor from guests, guards and the indistinguishable guards hidden from the public eye. With trained eyes one could picked them out as they were mangling with the guests to conceal their presence quite well.

"I see she's a very cautious person. I counted three guards dressed up like guests. One next to the lady in red, one having a drink standing at the base of the stairs and the other flirting with the two young ladies in the corner." Sarah explained in a low voice as this caught the attention of her team.

"Judging by their positions they are near the entrance area we need to gain access to the basement floor." Cameron stated.

"This could complicate things. We might have to wait until the presentation to begin so the guards can focus their attention inside the other room. Derek, you guys set up yet?" Sarah asked waiting for a response from the other team.

Three miles away from Weaver's estate on a darken street, Derek stopped the van at a telephone pole. He stepped out of the van and walked around the back. He opened the double door and took out a few orange cones to set up the road block for incoming traffic on their side of the road. Imposing as the LAWDP workers should make the questioning of their cover job run smoothly. Derek hoped they wouldn't run into any complications as he wanted this mission done a quickly as possible.

"We'll be operational in five minutes." Derek said responding to Sarah on their open com-links.

Running on time, Seen stepped out of the van and helped Derek un-strap the belts on top of the van on one side to bring down the ladder mounted on the hood.

Lifting the ladder, Derek brought it over to the telephone pole. He extended the second part of the ladder averaging fourteen feet in height. It was the perfect reach as it was positioned towards the top where the telephone and power lines intertwined with one another. Derek went back into the van, grabbed his tool belt and three hundred foot specialized fiber optic cable wire and dropped it to the ground.

Inside the van, as it's been transformed into an FBI surveillance van, Seen awaited Derek to connect the cable into the telephone lines. She started to turn on the four computers placed in the van by John and her, and opened her main laptop that connected with the main system they constructed at the house. By doing this it would be more sufficient to work around Weaver's fire walls defensive and also less time needed in hacking within her system once the mission was over.

At the displayed booth filled with new gadgets the company have been working on, John would have been interested but needed to keep his focus on the blind spots that Seen ordered him to watch. If he falters or seems suspicious, the guards would take notice and he would be on their radar. The tight security inside the Weaver estate and the resources that she had at her disposal, John knew he had to be cautious and blend in like his mother has been teaching him since he was a child.

Making his way to the refreshments that resembled more of a dinner buffet, John took a dish and started to pal food on it, as everything looked delicious to him. How he missed good food such as this as the plentiful food started to make him cry inside with happiness.

Once done grabbing everything he wanted like a starving animal, John casually walked over to a corner, perfect where the blind spot in the surveillance was and started to eat. It was a perfect cover to stay in one spot then just looking around like a person about to break into the place.

While enjoying his meal, he saw his protector grab a wine glass off a tray from a waiter giving drinks out, probably apple cider because of her age appearance, and started to drink it while keeping her eyes on everybody at the party. It was the second part of her job, to make sure she captured everybody's appearance and save it into her database.

Cameron smiled, ate when needed, and also started a conversation with an elderly man about computers. Using her pervious practice with Mrs. Fields, the librarian at her school of the age group, this made her blend into the environment perfectly well. By her wide range of knowledge it also attracted a few others in the area as it started to become a group conversation.

John was surprised how well Cameron's infiltration skills were working. Nobody would image she was a machine under her skin. It was the same way he was fooled until she revealed herself by surviving three gun shot wounds to the chest with their first encounter with Cromartie in the year 1999. He wondered if her infiltration skills were near to perfect, how or who discovered her in the Resistance Fighters camp. It would be difficult unless dogs sniffed her out before the Resistance guards identified her as metal.

_Great_, John thought. It was another thing he was going to rack his mind over about learning Cameron's back story again.

"Excuse me, would you like a drink?" Waitress asked.

Sarah looked to her right as the young lady asked her. "Sure. Thank you."

She took the wine glass and smiled at the waitress as she walked away offering a drink to another guest. Sarah took a sip, not accustomed to drinking on the job; however, it was part of blending in process. Whatever it was, it was pretty tasteful as she took another sip.

"I'll tell you, these parties are not my cup of tee. Bored rich people talking about how big their pockets can get."

A voice caught Sarah off guard, almost startling her that she didn't sense the presence next to her. She looked to the left as an appealing mid-thirty year old woman in a black dress was standing next to her leaning parochially on the wall where Sarah was stationed to keep tabs of the guards' behavior.

The woman kindly smiled at her.

Baffled, Sarah wasn't sure how the woman came up on her blind spot but it was a first in many years that she dropped her guard…or did she.

To not be rude, Sarah smiled. "It's interesting, if you understand what they're saying."

The woman gave her a yeah right look knowing they both shared the same feeling about the party.

Sarah chuckled amused by her expression as she was caught. "Okay, it's boring."

The woman smiled as she knew it. "Husband dragged you?"

"No daughter. She's into this stuff. Unfortunately I lost her somewhere around here." Sarah said lying. She knew Cameron's location as the machine was mangling in with the guest in the distance.

"Ah kids. Unfortunately I was never one." She winked at her new friend hoping she didn't take it the wrong way.

Sarah chuckled as she got the sense of humor from the comment.

It didn't dawn on Sarah until she saw the wink that the woman gave her. She looked vaguely familiar. For a strange reason Sarah couldn't understand it herself as if she met this woman before. But she never forgets a face and couldn't place her appearance to an event or name where she may have encounter her before. Thinking too much into the manner, Sarah decided to overlook it for now.

"Well where's my manners," The woman placed her hand out. "Name's Dealer."

Sarah shook her hand. "Grace."

Although she would like to use her real first name but in these tight security situations, lying about everything about herself was the best option. She was making sure nothing could be traced back to them in the long run. They had a streak of that happening lately in their family.

"Dealer…Is that your last name?" Sarah asked as it sounded odd for a woman to have that name. It sounded like a fake name just like hers.

"So I have been told. Dealer is my full name. I was rebellious adult, since I was never a child," Dealer smiled referring back to her pervious comment. "I decided to change my name to something rock and roll sounding…or mafia. I can't remember."

Sarah chuckled about her response. The strange part about the story, she wasn't sure if the woman was lying or telling the truth. She normally was a good lie detector from body language but with this woman she couldn't tell. It was bizarre. Either way she didn't feel annoyed when discussing this type of weird conversation with the woman. For the first time since entering the party, Sarah started to actually enjoy the party itself.

Almost done scanning the entire guest list, Cameron vision came back hundred eighty degrees, but instantly paused as her screen zoomed in on a particular person. Unsure how to react as her eyes widen in disbelief, she looked at John then back at Sarah. The conversation Sarah was having with a woman put her sensors on high alert. An immediate 'Terminate' flashed on her display screen. Unfortunately for her, the timing was horrible. She couldn't focus away from the mission they needed to accomplish at this point or the mission would be a failure.

Cameron looked at John which became double problem for her. He couldn't be seen by that woman, not even the slightest or he could be recognized. She had to distract his attention from even looking into his mother's direction or he may become curious.

"Hey…Hey…Earth to Cameron?"

Hearing a voice, Cameron snapped out of her confusion running through her chip analyzing the best possible way to approach the situation.

"Huh?" Cameron gave John a confused look.

"You okay?" John asks concerned. "Not a good time to space out when we're in the enemy territory."

He smiled humored by his comment. Cameron used this chance to direct his attention towards her.

"Sorry. What's on the food menu today?" Cameron asked.

"Food menu? Seriously?" John thought this was out of the blue as his eyes saw his mother in the corner talking to a woman he never seen before. The way his mother was smiling and oddly laughing, it looked like she was having a good time. It was curious to him.

"The people I was talking too suggested I try one of the favored deserts. Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake." Cameron said in her usual monotone voice.

"Really?" In her voice, though it was nothing to go on, John knew she was up to something. Since when did she need to eat? "This is interesting. Cheesecake?"

"I never tasted cake before. Since the cake I was going to buy you on your birthday never happened, Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake is the closest I am going to get at this moment." Cameron gave him a minor smirk making sure his attention was on her and not towards his mother.

Her unusual behavior amused John to no end. "Alright then. One Cheesecake to your liking coming up."

John complied with his protector's demand and walked over to the refreshment table near the stairs to get her what she requested.

Cameron glanced at Dealer then at John and followed him, making sure to stay close to him as possible. If Dealer was here then others could be at the party, blending in just like them. She had to be prepared for the worst, as she also had to stay out of site knowing that woman seen her face before from the future, and she couldn't risk starting a confrontation with too many witnesses around.

In her decision, Cameron finally decided to follow the original mission. Though eliminating Dealer would solve many of their problems, however, it would cause more consequences from her actions in following through with that plan. In order to protect the team, Cameron had to follow Seen's plan as another opportunity in eliminating Dealer will present itself. It always does.

A few miles away from the party outside, Derek finally hooked up the wires to the telephone-line going directly towards Weaver's estate.

"We're good." Derek said to the open com-link and started to head down the ladder, making his way back to the van.

Typing on her laptop using the master code her engineer tech friend gave her, she easily bypassed Weaver's security defenses. It was much easier then she anticipated but had to be cautious that a floating virus that detects intruders, wouldn't recognize her unauthorized intrusion inside the system.

The computer screens started to fill up with sixteen different camera images inside Weaver's estate as Seen smirked. "We have eyes. We are a go."

Sarah heard the message loud in clear still having her conversation with Dealer. It was almost time to begin.

Dealer suddenly glanced at her watch. "Well, I better get good seats to the main event. My friend who runs this place may not handle it by herself."

"Your friend?" Sarah asked curious.

"It's Catherine Weaver," Dealer answered. "She's the one that actually dragged me here."

She placed her drank down on the table next to her. "Well, it nice to meet you Grace and enjoy the nonsense."

"You too." Sarah said smiling back.

Feeling uneasy, Sarah watched Dealer walk away and towards the presentation room. This anxious feeling, she wasn't sure if it was Dealer's confession of being Weaver's friend or that the mission was about to commence. Either way, she was lucky she had that drink before. She needed something to calm her nervousness and focus on the task. Now she hope, though it was wishful thinking using that word, that the mission will turn out with zero casualties on both sides.

Sarah smirked about the ironic word, _hope_, and then glanced at the well equipped security guards. "Wishful thinking."


	15. IQ Party Part 3

Sorry for the wait. I hope this can hold you guys off for a while until the next update since it's extremely long.

* * *

**Chapter 11- I.Q. Party Part 3**

The true entertainment was about to begin as it was time for the mission to commence. Sarah glanced at her watch then saw the undercover guards starting to move away from their positions and towards the presentation room. Something was about to happen as the sections where the camera's blind spots were became exposed. She could go for it now but it was no word on Seen's orders if the coast was clear. She had to be patient which was not her strong front in these high circumstances.

"Ladies and gentleman," said Lisa, Weaver's secretary as she was gathering everybody's attention in the room.

Standing on the second floor ledge, she could see the entire lower floor. The dome ceiling above them projected her voice louder for the guest as if she was speaking into a microphone.

"I hope you have been enjoying the I.Q. party entertainment this evening as our presentation will begin in just a few minutes. However, before seeing our grand prize of the first _true_ A.I. introduced to the public, I will now introduce you the CEO of Cyberdyne and our hostess for tonight, Catherine Weaver."

The guests applaud gazing above them as the CEO of Cyberdyne gracefully walked down the steps from the second floor becoming the center of attention. Weaver, although still feeling tense, tried her best to stay focus. She thanked the people that came which were familiar investors to the company as they praised her in her work, anxious to see the Babylon project.

Upon greeting her guest, she made her way to the presentation room and stood in front of the entrance.

Disquieted, John glanced at his protector as her focus was on Weaver like a hawk. From a glimpse at the CEO this close in person, she looked like an average civilian. And yet this woman will help bring the end of the world for accomplishing a goal that many humans want to achieve by advancing technology for a better future.

The nervousness started to settle in his stomach again just thinking about that thought. To save the world, does this woman have to die? It always ended up that way when they tried to prevent Judgment Day. Miles Dyson, Andy Goode, Barbara Chamberlain, Jessica Peak, all innocent bystanders to their war and did not deserve their fate because of it, no matter how there future will play out. Considering the circumstances, John was unsure how Catherine Weaver life will play out either. He hoped they could avoid the never changing story for once from their fate in their story book, which resulted in their death.

"Thank you Lisa for the lovely introduction," said Weaver. "Ladies and gentleman, I hope you're enjoying the party and the finest wine,"

The guest began to laugh at that assumption.

"Unfortunately I'm going to have to steal you guys away from it for the main event that will start shortly. Please find your seats accordingly and the main event will begin soon."

Weaver turned around and headed into the presentation room as Brain was standing next to John Henry watching the guests fill up the room.

Taking a seat in the back, from first glance Sarah and John were appalled as the Turk was mounted right in the front of the room. To not cause suspicion, Cameron had to push the two Connors to their seats from there gaping expressions. She understood their emotional state; however, they needed to suppress their emotions. They had to stay calm and collected. If one guard senses their discomfort then their mission would be compromised.

"I wonder what there showing." Seen lightly chuckled.

"I know what it ends up doing." Derek said not amused by her comment, as he was seated next to her watching the entire event on the multiple computer screens inside the LADWP van.

"We should have destroyed it when we had the chance." Derek implied, distressed that his mission was a failure.

"Destroying it was on my mind at first, but it could have just been a shell. The person in charge would have backups of the program secretly hidden within the company or offshore, somewhere secure so people like us don't pay her a visit." Seen replied.

She wondered was the Turk truly Skynet. The sense of destruction and loathing feeling of annihilating humanity from the face of the earth felt absent when she first saw it. A theory have crossed her mind the more she continued to stay in the past. Could a possible outside influence made Skynet seek destruction upon the human race in the future?

Although it was still conjectural the further she learned about the birth of Skynet, however, will the knowledge she gain be enough to stop the fourth coming battle between men vs. machine.

"I guess you really have to think of it as a chess game." Seen said gazing at the small monster placed in its plastic prison.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Sooner or later that _thing_ is going to have us all in checkmate." Derek sardonically said having a detestation attitude towards the machines every waking second he breathed.

Seen sensed the disdainful tone in his voice as in every Resistance Fighter she meant in her life, except for one.

"As long as you have a chess piece still alive to protect the king then theirs still hope, until the king lays down in defeat then its checkmate."

The serenely in her voice made Derek glance at the girl. It was a comment that was out of character for Seen. He knew it was directed at his nephew and the destiny that will come if they are unsuccessful to stop Judgment Day.

Replaying the comment in his mind, he might have found the answer to Sarah's question. It was the question of how Seen became a Sergeant. That comment and her serene composure made him see the logic to not send a backup engineer in her place. She had the special qualities of an engineer and much more, only she was oblivious to that notion, Derek thought.

Something disturbing caught Seen's attention as her eyes focused on the back row. Her team's acrimonious expression towards the Turk vexed her, uncertain how this will play out in a few minutes.

The presenter that was introducing John Henry to the audience voice became dim to the Connor team, as Sarah and John loathing eyes stared at the Turk.

Barely moving or breathing, abhorrence and revulsion towards Skynet filled the void in his heart. Since his birth, Skynet have made his life a living hell. Every breath he took, uncertainty it would be his last for a future he never wanted any part in becoming the famous John Connor, this was his chance to finish the job once in for all while the horrid beast was defenseless. All he had to do was order Cameron to destroy it right here right now. No, he would do it himself. It was only befitting to deliver the finishing blow. Unsure how, but some way he would do it. A couple of bullets would end _its_ life. All he needed was a gun.

His thoughts were interrupted by a voice that snapped him back to reality quickly.

"All of you," said Seen through the com-link. "Don't even think about it. You want to kill everybody in the room on a hunch _that's_ the real Skynet."

"It is," said Sarah bluntly. "We can destroy it now."

Gnawed by their drunk self on revenge, Seen had to conceal her frustration how ludicrous she was sounding. The entire operation was to make sure their team would walk away unscathed as there impulsive actions at this moment would ruin that plan.

"You destroy it and you are all dead," said Seen convincing the team to stop their suicidal attempt in destroying the Turk. "I didn't place you guys in there to get yourselves killed."

"We understand the risk." John said dourly.

Luckily, she had one person or _machine_ on the team that was neutral and stayed focus on her primary objective, which was to protect John Connor. His botch job attempt in destroying the Turk would compromise that objective.

"Cameron." Seen called her name to become her surrogate voice to help prevent the two Connors premeditative act.

"Seen's right," Cameron conceded, agreeing to her friend's protest. "We have insufficient information if that's the real Turk or a replication. We can't base our judgment on a possibility. We need to be hundred percent sure to advance in an attack,"

The words from the machine brought the Connors back from their revenge trip in there almost unconscionable action, given the situation they were all in.

"Beside," Cameron continued. "If I was Skynet, I would place a terminator in this room, protecting from a distance from its enemies."

Both the Connors stared at Cameron perplexed, and then begun to search the room guest by guest. Where was the terminator? Could it be a security guard? Brian? Or possibly the CEO of Cyberdyne?

Unsure of the possibility that a terminator was in the room, this left the Connors in a discomposure state the more they stayed in Weaver's estate, given the fact they always ran the opposite direction when it came to the machines.

Cognizant of the infiltrator unit in the room unlike her counterparts, Cameron gazed at Dealer in the first row listening to Brian's presentation. From the brief confrontations she had with that woman in the future, she was not a machine, but something else. On every occasion she had with her, she barely escaped her clutches. With John in the room, Seen's plan had to prove fruitful. She had to believe in the plan to destroy Skynet in the end before Judgment Day arrives.

"Now that you understand the situation clearly…Sarah it's time." Seen said.

Sarah eyes lingered around the room as the guards focus was on the presentation intrigued about the new A.I. capabilities themselves.

"Okay." Sarah responded.

Standing up, she weaved her way out from the row, excusing herself as the guests cleared a path for her and walked out of the presentation room.

One man stood up from his chair and asked a question. "Sorry for not being thrilled like the others, but from what you're saying couldn't a regular computer do this?"

"So you say," said Brian as this was a question he was ready to demonstrate what John Henry could do. "John Henry, give me all the information on Mr. Michael Mondose?"

John Henry objects to that request. Projected by an overhead projector mounted on the ceiling, he types on the screen, 'That is illegal without authorization from the authorities or the individual themselves.'

The crowd started to laugh from the comment as they were impressed it was obeying the law.

"Yes, John Henry it is. My mistake," Brain looked at John Henry texting on the screen, amused as his program was working accordingly and then at Mr. Mondose.

"Mr. Mondose, if I could have your permission to search your records to view to the public?" Brian asked.

Also pleased by the AI's intellect understanding right from wrong, Mr. Mondose nodded his head giving his approval.

Taking Mr. Mondose facial recognition, in an instant John Henry pulled up his driver's license, birth certificate, family tree, property, insurance, yearly taxes including his annually pay. All of his information flashed on the screen in a blink of an eye displaying his entire life.

"Mr. Mondose you were born in 1969, in Adams County, Illinois with five brothers and two sisters as you were the youngest son to Jim Mondose and Mary Smith. Went to Adams Elementary from first to third grade**, **Baldwin Intermediate School from fourth to six grade, Quincy Junior High School in which you were caught drinking on campus on two occasions,"

The crowd started to laugh as Mr. Mondose made a gesture in a humorously confession.

"Then you went to Quincy Notre Dame High School, caught in stealing a sneaker bar at a 7-eleven." Brain chuckled.

"Hey that charge was dropped. I was hungry and I forgot it was in my pocket." Mr. Mondoese smiled remembering his crazy ways when he was young.

"Yes, it was but if it was filed on your record it will always be there. It's like deleting a file from a computer, it's never gone just stored somewhere where you can't see it." Brain answered his question and comparing it to a computer analogy.

"To get to the root of the story, John Henry can make your task less time consuming and more sufficient on finding everything you need such as maybe…an unknown suspect if you worked for the CIA, FBI, or LAPD. Think of how fast the A.I. program can help find anybody in the world in the fastest manner to stop criminals, terrorists, deadly premeditative attacks against innocent people…or help in the medical field."

As if like a professor in a classroom, Brain began to walk up the ale wanting to grab everybody's attention on what he was purposing, as the guests became like students in listening to the lecture acutely.

"Take for instance, a doctor is operating on a patient for heart problems and something goes wrong. The patient only has seconds to live. Many things can go wrong that a doctor have to make a quick decision on a _possibility_ if you say…cut an artery near the heart. Could this save the patient's life or will this possibility cause further complications that could affect the patient down the road in life?"

The few doctors in the room began to whisper among one another having mixed feelings about an A.I. program incorporated in the medical field from what Brain was suggesting.

"Depending on the situation it's a gamble, a fifty fifty chance," Brian continued, "With John Henry's oversight and faster decision making, it could assist the doctor by giving calculated static's to make the correct decision. Then the percentage for the patient's survival goes up and by fare close to eighty or ninety percent chance to live a healthier life with fewer doctor visits after the surgery."

Brain began to walk down the ale as his words were starting to impress the guest on what his invention could purpose in many aspects where humans errors are created.

"Think of the infinite possibilities that John Henry could do in advancing humanity. This is just the beginning."

The crowd began to applause impressed from the small results and anxious to learn more about John Henry.

Last time glancing at the Turk, Cameron stood up. "I'm leaving."

Before leaving the room, her eyes focused on Dealer. Although leaving John unattended with that woman in the room was not good intentions since Dealer's presence turned this mission into a deadly game. However, he was much safer with her absence. If she remains unidentified then he could stay hidden within the crowd.

"Remember to be a ghost." Cameron said and left the room.

John watched his protector leave, remembering a few weeks ago when they discussed Seen's position when they first met. Although it was odd for his protector to say, in a situation like this all he wanted was to become a ghost.

Fixing his tie in the hallway mirror as he felt insufferable attending these functions, one guard was uninterested the entire time during the event. His unenthusiastic attitude made him the perfect candidate for Sarah to elude to gain access to the basement level.

"Excuse me. Do you know where the bathroom is?" Sarah asked, smiling kindly at the guard.

The man finished fiddling with his tie and then saw the woman asking him directions.

Breath taken, as if an angel descended from heaven, the man was spellbound by Sarah's pulchritude appearance. It has been awhile since he's been this attractive to a woman at first sight. In his line of work, beautiful women come and go like the passing wind, but something about _this_ woman made him speechless as his mouth was ajar in a gawking fashion staring aimless at her perfect figure. The seductive black dress and winsome smile was hypnotizing him much quicker then he thought.

His mother always told him if he ever met a girl that made him stop as if she was a goddess to his eyes then she was a keeper. He cursed to himself that his professional life always interrupted his happiness.

The slick looking 6'1" lighten short cut brown hair, fairly handsome security guard, amused Sarah by his schoolboy expression as if seeing a pretty girl for the first time.

"Sorry," He said finally breaking out of his stupefied look. "It's down the hallway, take a right, left and then small right, it should be on your right hand side. I can escort you if you want."

"No that okay. Thank you." Sarah lightly smiled.

The guard watched her walk down the hallway still goggling over her beauty. He had to flush his deluded fantasy from his mind. A woman looking that beautiful was either married or involved with somebody, he thought.

A bottle of water was shown in front of him as he saw his friend, another guard different in size, taller and older in age presumably early forties, appeared next to him. Unlike his small structured friend, the older guard took his work more professional.

"You think I'm a nice guy?" The guard asked, still having the imprinted image of Sarah starting to plaque his mind again.

The guard looked at his friend oddly. "Nathan, you work for an employer that hires people to kill people that she hires. The only way you can get a real woman is being reincarnated."

"Wow _Tod_, never become a councilor when you retire. You're not perfect either. I don't see the ladies all over you, especially with a name like yours. _Tod_. You're Russian with an English name." Nathan sarcastically stated.

"My name is not the problem. Besides a good woman doesn't exist in this sugar coated world we live in. What brought this up anyway? Saw something you can't have?" Tod asked as he took off the cap from his water bottle and began to drink it.

Nathan looked into the direction where Sarah left, dejected as their short encounter would have never worked in a long lasting relationship given his job profession.

He sighed in depression.

"Just forget it." He finally told him.

* * *

Rearing her way around a corner heading down a stairway, Sarah swiftly but quietly made her way down the basement level. Her shoes were making it difficult to be incognito with the heel constantly hitting the marbled floor, creating clacking sounds that echoed throughout the hallway. Consciously contemplating on taking the shoes off, she reminded herself she had to still remain undercover. If a guard pass and acknowledge her without any shoes on her feet then it would arose suspicion.

"Take a left."

Sarah followed the guided words from Seen on her com-link. Every camera she passed it feel uncomfortable each corner she turned. She loathed them when she was at Pescadero State Hospital and she still despised them, eyes always watching her. It was almost impossible to escape the spying devices every place she went in this modern technologized world.

Sarah had to calm her nervousness. "Are you sure the guards can't see me?"

"Yes. They're only looking at a looped feed." Seen answered hoping this would stop her jitters. "However, I don't trust high paid guards. They pay too much attention to details."

Sarah glanced at her watch again. The open window she had was five minutes. She had to hurry as she made her way already on the basement level. Now all she had to do was find the security quarter.

There it was, a few feet from her. She quickly jogged to the door as she saw a high tech key pad next to the steel door.

"Alright I'm here," Sarah vaguely looked over the key pad as this was Seen's department. "What's the code?"

Extensively typing on the keyboard, Seen was running a cryptic code on her laptop as the security code was becoming difficult for her to hack. She had to give her hat off to her Swedish friend as a part of her was rapt by the challenge to decode it.

Derek saw a guard coming towards Sarah location on the camera feed. "Sarah you have company coming in the west wig less then a minute out."

His warning brought Sarah senses on high alert.

"Come on Kid, I don't have a minute. You said you had the code from your Swedish tech buddy." Sarah hissed.

"No I said I had the algorithm code to crack the defenses of the security system to speed up the process which would take…"

"Okay, okay whatever. Just get it open." Sarah ordered.

The situation turned for the worse, as Seen and Derek heard a vehicle pull up to their van outside. They both looked at each other puzzled.

Derek took the gun lying on the small desk stationing the computer screens, and secured it behind his back inside his pants. He concealed it by his jacket layered underneath his yellow High-Viz jacket.

"Get it done." Derek instructed and went out the van through the driver's side.

Seen focus shifted back to the code as she had to break it immediately. Luckily in devising the mission, plan A had backup.

Waiting for the code pad to turn green, Sarah watched the west wing intensively. She needed the code now. Without a weapon at her disposal and doing combat in a dress, she was at a disadvantage. She was unsure how effective she would be in type of situation such as this.

_Just my luck_, she thought.

Actually, as Sarah dug in her small purse that matched the color of her black dress, she had one weapon that she took off the refreshment table and managed to sneak it inside her purse. It was a cutting knife. It was not the lethal standard of a combat knife but it would have to due given the circumstances.

Sarah aligned herself into position and came to the corner of the wall, hugging it as the knife was down at her side. The loud footsteps came closer as she started heavily breathing. The key pad was still red and her time was running out. She cursed to herself, as the footsteps were seconds away from entering her hallway.

It was too late. The guard was here. She had to prepare herself as it was him or her.

As the guard came around the corner, Sarah pushed off the wall to give her the extra momentum, arm raised about to strike the enemy, but unexpectedly halted her movements.

It was the guard before, Nathan, as he was staring at her flabbergasted and in dismay.

Without even going into an explanation, Nathan stepped back a few inches and drew his handgun from his holster in a blank of an eye.

"What are you doing down here?! This is a restricted area." Nathan said as his voice that was friendly previously was now gone.

"Put your weapon down!" He demanded.

The keypad turned green.

_Thanks a lot Seen_, Sarah thought watching the pad turn colors out the corner of her eyes. The timing was off and now she had a problem on her hand. The five minutes she had before became less then two minutes.

"Sorry, I got lost after all." Sarah smiled trying to throw the guard off again.

"Place your weapon on the ground and slide it over to me." Her seductive attempt became futile as Nathan was ready to fire at will at a given moment.

"Okay." Sarah complied and slowly placed the knife on the ground, still having one hand up, and slid the weapon over to him.

The guard neither look down or flinch; his eyes stayed focused on Sarah the entire time as he caught the knife under his shoe. Just her luck, the guard was a pro, trained military most likely, Sarah thought.

"Who are you? CIA? FBI? SVR?" Nathan asked demanding answers.

"No," Sarah answered as her nerves were at ease even though a gun was pointed directly between her eyes. "But you should put the gun down. If I told you the truth, you'll think I'm crazy."

"Try me."

Sarah smirked. "I think you should put the gun down."

"Why? Because you said so."

"Yes."

Nathan eyes widen hearing a different voice behind him. About to counter attack the new enemy, a powerful blow hit the back side of his right leg, as if hit by a leaded pipe. The excessive pain made him lose the grip to his gun as it fell to the floor. He bent down on one knee losing balance as if a painful shockwave ran throughout his body to disconnect the brain patterns to move his body willingly.

An arm grabbed around his neck and grippingly started to suffocate him. He was unable to breathe from the tremendous strain around his windpipes as if strangled by a rope. He tried to struggle out of the grip but it was too tight as the person already had his other arm behind his back making his effort futile to resist. Black and red spots started to cloud his vision as he stared at Sarah as if telepathically asking for help. But her calm expression told him she knew the person who was chocking him as she did nothing to stop it.

Soon his vision blurred as all he saw was darkness.

Cameron let go of Nathan's neck as his body fell to the ground unconscious.

"He'll live." Cameron said.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill him." Sarah said feeling sorry for the guard.

"Seen told me not too." Cameron walked towards the steel door.

Sarah curiously looked at the machine and followed her.

"You listen to Seen but not John or I."

Cameron opened the door. "Because, we've established a gain of trust between one another, something that is rarely common to acquire in our line of work."

Her comment left Sarah baffled of what established trust was that. Maybe she needed to have a talk with Seen after all about the machines, especially with this one in front of her that was exceptionally well at lying.

Stepping into the security room, chips and a soda bottle caught the interest of the two females.

"The guard probably went to the bathroom." Sarah said and wasted no time in completing her objective.

She took out the device Seen had given to her from inside her purse. Cameron assisted her and quickly glanced at the four large mainframes within the room. Right away her scanners signaled the last one on the right was the clear indication the central mainframe that connected to the rest. She walked over to it and took off the heavy panel in front of it that would take three men to pry open. Quickly, she unhooked four color coded wires that she memorized from Seen's blueprints that were drawn before the mission begun.

Keeping an eye out for the guard, Sarah gave the device to Cameron as she connected it to the color coded wires. It was set as the device became activated with a lit red light and then dimmed out a second later.

Sarah looked at it oddly. "Wait, is it supposed to do that?"

"Yes." Cameron answered and placed the heavy panel back onto the mainframe. "It's done. We should leave before we're compromised."

"Let's go." Sarah took the lead and headed out of the basement level, the same way she entered.

One security guard walked down the basement hallway and came to the main security steel door. He punched a seven digit number on the keypad and opened the door. Leisurely, he plopped onto the chair like a couch potato, and began eating his chips, bored in watching the party on the cameras.

"Mark."

The security guard heard his name called on the Walkie-Talkie placed near the keyboards. Irritated and annoyed by the call he reached for the communicating device.

"Yes _Tod_."

"Tell Nathan to check camera 23. It hasn't rotated for the past five minutes." Tod explained as he was looking at the camera strangely.

"Nathan's not even here." Mark responded.

"What are you talking about? He went down four minutes ago."

"Well he's not here," Mark observed the empty room to justify his answer. "I'm telling you."

This became bizarre as he saw his partner go down the stairway. Staring back and fourth between the stairs and then at the camera, it was suspicious even for a malfunctioning camera.

"Mark…rewind the tape on camera 23 five minutes before."

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions just do it." Tod hastily instructed.

"Fine, fine," Mark followed his orders as he was becoming a pest. "Tod I don't see anything. Nathan didn't even come down the steps in the past five minutes."

Something curious caught Mark's attention. "Wait, this is weird. Where's your location now?"

"I'm looking right at camera 23 and I've been standing here for the past five minutes."

"I don't see you at all on the tape. What the hell?" Mark became confused.

"Oh shit," Tod already knew what was happening before his eyes. In his years of training with the Russian forces, this shared a resemblance to an attack.

"All teams, all teams we have intruders inside the building. Alpha team check third floor, Bravo check second, Delta check basement level and Echo check the perimeter. Keep your actions in a discrete manner as possible. We can not afford a panic." Todd instructed.

All the guards were on alert from the intruder alert as they began to scramble.

Secretly watching the entire event unfolding, John saw this from his position. It was odd how the toy soldiers started to become animated. This could mean one thing. They were compromised.

"You guys have company. The entire security team in the presentation room is coming towards your location. You need to get out of there now." John said in a low voice.

It was time to move on his part as John stood up from his chair. The presentation was almost over as John made his way out of the outside ale heading to his specific location, hoping his mother and Cameron was there for him to extract.

Feeling a tingling sensation in her stomach, this meant danger was occurring. She knew this feeling as if breathing air. In a low key gesture, Dealer glanced behind her watching the guards move away from their positions. Shaking distributed her thoughts as she glanced at her trembling hand. She knew this feeling and quickly searched the room, desperately to pinpoint why her body was feeling this sensation. Then her eyes focused in the back room watching a teenage boy leave the presentation room.

"It can't be." She whispered in sudden shock.

She stood up and left her seat, already positioned at the end of the row, and walked towards the outside room in a haste manner.

The audience began to clap as Brian was done with the presentation. Weaver smiled at Brian impressed in her employee's effort. However, her focus was abruptly pointed elsewhere as she saw Dealer leave the room in a hurry. From this strange behavior, trouble was happening in her home. Although this sudden situation caught her interest, however, keeping the guest calm became her top priority.

To keep the guest attention towards her, she took the stage by stalling time for whatever the manner was happening in her home. If people saw her security guards scrambling like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, this could cause a panic. She would have to speak with Dealer in debriefing her on the situation later.

* * *

Escaping the massive estate became complicated for the team once their position became compromised. The guards started to fill the hallways as Sarah saw two coming into her direction. She pulled her head back around a corner, gave Cameron a hand gesture and patiently waited for the collision course with one another.

Desperately trying to find the intruders, the two guards came around a corner but Sarah was prepared and caught both men by surprised. She quickly elbowed one guard closer to her position in the chest in a surprised attack. She used her heel shoe and jabbed it into his leg as the guard went down on knee in pain. She grabbed his suit jacket and brutally threw his body towards the wall, head first, knocking him unconscious.

Shellshock in watching his partner be manhandled by a woman less his size; his blind spot was unprotected. A shadow figure went passed his vision on the left, as if in a blur, as he finally caught the glimpse of the emotionless machine. Cameron impassively stared at dismayed guard.

In his defense reacting on instinct, the guard threw a striking punch. With little effort, Cameron caught his fist with her bare hand and held a firm grip as the guard tried to retract his arm from her grasp. Like breaking a twig, she pushed his fist upward, as the guard screamed in pain from his broken wrist. To silence the man quickly, Cameron elbow struck the man in the face, as if punched by an over two hundred pound boxer. The guard's body fell to the floor, unconscious.

"We need to hurry quickly." Cameron suggested as the situation was starting to escalate.

"Seen is the escape route clear?" Sarah asked over the com-link.

The com-links were accompanied by silence.

"Seen is the escape route clear?!"

The com-link remained silent as she heard nothing from both Resistance Fighters.

"Dam it Kid. What the hell are you doing?!" Sarah whispered in frustration.

* * *

A police officer stepped out of his car, closed the door and walked over to the white van. He examined the LADWP vehicle on the side of the road and directed his vision up at the telephone pole, and then guided back down by the wires connected to the top of the van. At this time of night he wanted to make sure everything was operating correctly conscious of Weaver's party a few miles ahead.

"How can I help you officer?"

Startled, the police officer turned around and saw Derek blithe smile.

"I was just doing a routine check and wanted to make sure everything was fine. Is something wrong with the wires?" The officer asked studying Derek's behavior meticulously.

"One of our customers been experiencing drop connections and were figuring out if it's the lines or not." Derek explained keeping his calm composure to not raise suspicion that they were false LADWP employees.

The officer looked at Derek skeptically. "This late at night?"

"Doesn't matter what time it is. Our customers' satisfaction comes first. Even if we have to sacrifice our own sleep." Derek said sarcastically.

The cop chuckled understanding his demanding profession just like his.

Immediately on alert, a noise was heard inside the van as the cop suspiciously glanced at Derek.

"Are you alone Sir?"

Derek cursed to himself as he told the girl to stay silent.

"Yes. You want to check my papers because I have them in order if theirs any problem." Derek said to delude the officer's fourth going action to inspect the van.

The police officer heard another noise as it was louder. He placed his hand on his gun holster located on his waist and cautiously walked closer to the van.

"Are you sure you're alone?" The officer asked again inching closer to the vehicle.

Derek placed his hand on his gun behind his back, ready to pull the trigger to successfully complete the mission at any coast.

"Yes I am." Derek said again with a look to kill expressed on his face.

The back doors opened as Seen jumped out of the van in a gleeful manner.

"Hey dad my clan just won a clan battle on Halo 3!" Seen excitingly smiled as her acting skills kicked in. Right away her smile disappeared as she saw the police officer and looked at Derek flummoxed.

"Dad is something wrong?"

The police officer glanced into the van as an Xbox console and a game running on the computer screens, made the teenager's story plausible.

"Is this your daughter?" The police officer asked placing his hand down that it was a false arm.

From the age of the girl, the LADWP worker looked too young to have a teenage daughter. However, in this day in age, having a baby can vary in the younger generation compared from his time, the officer thought.

Derek placed his hand down at his side as he was going to run with Seen's story.

"We're not busted are we? I know you told me to stay in the van because I'm not supposed to be here…I'm sorry officer, I don't want my father to get fired for me being here. He didn't want to leave me alone in the house tonight." Seen pleaded as if concerned.

She hoped his eyes were focused entirely on her and disinterested from the technical equipment inside the van. She cleaned it up as much as she could but if the officer noticed too much then they would have to end his life, something she was trying to avoid.

Derek glanced at the cop as her story was convincing him. "I'm sorry about this. I'm all my daughter has and we live in a not so good neighborhood. I figured I would do this job real quick and get her back home before eleven. I'm really sorry again about lying…"

The police officer started to relax and smiled at the father and daughter duo.

"It's okay. I'm a single parent myself so I know how it is, especially raising a daughter."

Derek smiled jubilantly. "Thank you."

"Well if the LADWP is on the job, then I'll leave the situation in your hands. You guys have a nice day." The police officer said.

"You too officer." Derek and Seen said in unison.

The officer went back into his car and drove down the street towards Weaver's estate.

It was a pause between the false father and daughter team as Derek smirked how the situation turned out. It was a close call in his book.

"Nice lie."

"It comes in handy." Seen said and hustled back into the van. She quickly changed the monitor as guards were scrambling inside Weaver's estate on each floor. "I guess our time is up."

Derek saw the commotion on the screen. "We need to get out of here fast before that cop turns back around."

* * *

Walking in a brisk pace, looking left and right, Dealer eagerly wanted to find the young boy that left her sight. She paused as she saw the teenager making his way down the main hallway. Without hesitating she followed behind him. Familiar images flashed through her mind to substantiate her suspicions, it was him.

John Connor, the human savior of all mankind.

Dealer went inside her purse and pulled out a Czech CZ 75. her personalized handgun equipped to her grip alone.

John turned the corner and walked out the main entrance door. Dealer hastily followed to make sure her target would not elude her. Thoughts ran through her mind. Of all the people to attend her party she thought it would be the engineer and yet _he_ was here.

What was truly going on? She asked herself. Or perhaps the engineer was already inside the building. Either way, she needed collateral incase the girl decided to play the suicidal game. Resistance Fighters were known for foolish actions such as going kamikaze on a mission.

When she came to the main entrance she walked outside the estate coming into the driveway. Dealer cautiously scanned the perimeter. The teenage boy that was in her sight previously was now gone as if he was a ghost. She cursed under her breathe. Was the image of John Connor just an illusion? Whatever she saw, it would have to wait as she had other important manners to address.

John pulled up the jeep around the back of the house as he saw his mother and his protector come out one of the side exits to Weaver's estate. They hurried into the car as Weaver still had guards patrolled outside the house. Without wasting a second, both females step into the vehicle, as John hastily drove down a pathway that lead to the main driveway and merged onto the main road.

* * *

What she needed to take down Skynet was already being processed through the computer system from the device they implanted into Weaver's mainframe hardlines. On the main computer screen, an algorithm code was processing through Weaver's files at a rapid pace, decrypting the thousands of files individually.

Seen was pleased from the results from the device, as five hundred files were already done in less then two hours since they came back from their mission. Her main plan was starting to manifest, as all she had to do was keep the actual monster protecting Skynet at bay and then she will have all of them in checkmate.

This started to make her enthusiastic about her plans. However, she had to keep her composure in front of the team. She did not want to get their hopes up. They had to stick with the course of taking down Skynet one mission at a time or Judgment day will still be on schedule if she over analyzed anything.

"Keep working on it…and thank you." Seen said.

She trotted up the basement steps, completely exhausted from the long strenuous three days.

Preparing herself for bed, Seen spit water into the bathroom sink and smiled brightly into the mirror admiring her white teeth. One thing humans tried their best in the future was to keep their teeth in good condition as long as possible. She has seen when people neglected them and had to resort in the barbaric way by pulling a tooth out with their bare hands. Without any anesthesia, it was a painful experience, an experience she would like to live without. In combat, no matter how dirty and grimy the battlefield was a small amount of baking soda and her toothbrush was always carried with her.

Placing her toothbrush in a toothbrush holder, she walked out of the bathroom. It was almost one' clock in the morning as everybody was finally winding down for the night.

Coming from the bathroom, Seen saw John heading in her direction with a towel lying on his shoulder. After coming from the mission, she noticed John acted different. He held his head higher then normally. Was it the fact the mission was a success or was it that he contributed to the team knowing how his mother felt about him participating in any missions?

To her, a successful mission was nothing. However, she remembered that exciting feeling of others depending on her skills on a mission in the future.

"Hey." John said walking past her with a quirk smile.

"Hey." Seen responded.

Her movements halted before entering into her room. She remembered a phrase her friend use to tell her and it was a good time to express it towards John while he was in an overwrought mood.

"John."

He stopped and looked at her.

"…Nice job."

John became surprised by her words as she smirked and went into her room, closing the door behind her.

Repeated her words again, it was the first time somebody said that to him. It was not in killing a machine or killing somebody in this case at all, but congratulating him on completing a mission, a successful mission at that. Unsure what this sudden feeling was, but all he knew it felt self-satisfying.

"Nice job." He mumbled and smiled going into the bathroom. He wanted to tell Seen 'thank you', but the half smile on her face concluded that she already knew.

* * *

Rubbing her eyes, all Seen saw was the bed and climbed into it. All she needed was a good four hour sleep and she would be ready to rock and roll in the morning. She pulled the covers over her head and lied on the soft pillow. It was perfect.

However, that supposedly peaceful sleep had to wait as something in her room disturbed that process from happening.

"What is it?" Seen asked calmly, eyes focused on the flower painted pink wallpaper in the darken room. Luckily for her the darkness unaffected her vision as she became use to it in the future.

Stepping out of the shadow concealed mostly by the darkness in a corner of the room, Cameron vision was focused on her friend. Her clothing have changed as she wore her normal patrol outfit she would wear to protect the house. Her emotionless gaze glaring at Seen one would think it was her expressing anger, unfortunately one would not know with Cameron.

"Did you know?" Cameron asked.

"Know what?"

"That _she_ was going to be there. Did you accept Derek's mission knowing it was going to be a failure to have an excuse to not go on _this_ mission?"

"What are you implying? That I'm a coward…from _her_?"

Cameron acknowledged the change of voice pitch when Seen used Dealer in a reference as _her,_ as if feeling odium for the woman. Though she wanted to avoid any heated confrontation with Seen, but when it affected her primary mission it was something that needed to be addressed.

"John could have been killed," Cameron stated. "She's different then the others. She could have recognized him."

"But she didn't or we wouldn't be having this conversation." Seen said as she finally moved sat vertical on the bed. She stared at her metal friend, annoyed by her statement.

"John says sometimes it's okay to be afraid…"

"…Well _John's_ not here." Seen quickly cutting her off, becoming irritated the more this conversation continued.

"Being afraid conflicts with your judgment on the battlefield," Seen continued. "My head was clear the entire time before this mission began. If I was afraid, I would have pulled a suicidal stunt like Sarah and John before we stopped them. When I construct a mission I make sure I minimize innocent lives in the crossfire and the life of my entire team. If I went on the mission I would have jeopardize us all. That woman doesn't care where she's at. She would have pulled the trigger and killed me in plain site at the party."

Seen paused as she had to calm herself. Her frustration level was rising as she started to become uncomfortable arguing with Cameron. She rarely argued with her as they were almost on the same page when it came to completing missions.

"Look Cameron," Seen's voice became steady. "My head must be clear to play this chess game with Skynet or _they_ win. John may not want to accept his fate, but he have to learn and fight Skynet or he's dead. We're not going to be here forever Cameron. Resistance Fighters don't last that long,"

Cameron sensed the despondency in her voice and knew Seen was referring this to the person she cared about in the future that was killed in battle because of her.

"My clock is ticking…and sooner or later it's going to stop. When that happens, future John and the others that entrusted this mission to me…can live and Judgment Day will never happen."

Seen eyes focused on the floor unable to hold back the horrible memories from her life. She glanced at Cameron seeing her friend's usual blink gaze as if confused like a lost puppy. Seen was unsure if the information she was telling her was being processed to her chip to understand her emotions. However, if she went into detail it would take all night to explain the meaning behind her words to Cameron.

"Look," said Seen wearily. "I haven't slept in forty eight hours and I have a headache. We'll figure out our next plan in the morning against Skynet. If it makes you happy, we can argue some more if you prefer it. But…I just want to get some sleep. Please."

Cameron processed the entire conversation as the sleep Seen was requesting; her pupils were an indication of sleep deprivation. Sleep was an important factor for humans to require the sufficient amount to function properly, she thought.

Without saying a word, Cameron followed Seen's orders and decided to leave the conversation to a draw between them both. The topic will come up again in the future but guilt started to express on Seen's face as this was unintentional from what Cameron originally had in mind.

Unlike the others on the team that only saw the facade her friend shown, Cameron knew Seen was still grieving over the lost of her friends. Her stolen appearance in which she resembled was hard enough to look at everyday. Sometimes Cameron wondered did she loathe her for taking her best friend away, done by her own hands.

Cameron placed her hand on the door about to walk out but paused.

"Now I understand why Skynet wants to kill you. You're just like John and that makes you equally as dangerous as him."

Seen surprisingly stared at Cameron by that comparison.

"For that you can become Skynet's Trojan Horse towards humans if captured, considering _your_ situation. The fate you already decided for yourself may not be the best for others." Cameron said as she closed the door behind her leaving Seen alone to acquire the sleep she asked for.

Her eyes glanced back towards the floor playing Cameron's conversation over in her mind again. Seen understood what her metal friend was saying, but her past life made her want to forget. She did not have the heart to tell Cameron what her original plan was as she knew she would intervene. However, her enemies were closing in as this house was going to have a bullseye on it as big as LA County. She could only hold them at bay for so long until one of them in the house makes a mistake for all hell to break loose.

Seen laid back into bed, pulling the covers over her shoulder again and stared at the flower painted wallpaper again.

"Skynet's Trojan Horse…humph," Seen smirked at that idea. "You're very funny Cameron."


	16. Eyes on you

**Chapter 12- Eyes on you**

In the Connors home basement, where must of his time have been spent the past couple of days, John been searching through Weaver's files from the success from their last mission. Some of the files he could decode without any assistant from his engineer partner. However, lately while diving deeper into Weaver's database, each turn he took in the cyberspace system he would trip on an access code command.

It acted like an alarm system that was falsely being trigger in a house. It was if the security system knew something was wrong but was unsure how to proceed to counter attack or if it was an actual intruder.

It was strange how it sounded, John repeated to himself, as if the system was an active artificial intelligence. Could it be their latest project John Henry? Either way, it was becoming difficult and frustrating at times to keep typing the code that Seen acquired from the Sweetish lab tech.

Footsteps coming down the creaky stairs caught his attention only to notice it was Seen. He went back to working on the files trying to get partial of it done which in this case five percentage of it. Judging by the thousands of files Weaver had stored on her database, timing to access all the files was unpredictable, possibly months in his situation. For once, he wished he had an AI to assist him twenty-four hours a day, and help lift the burden from finishing it in a short period.

The fast food snack on a plate, hot pockets, was place next to him as Seen looked at his work.

"Hey, I think I found something." John said as he kept his focus on the computer monitor.

"What you got?" Seen asked interested by the algorithm code from the command file displayed on the screen.

"In most of the encrypted files on Weaver's server, I somehow accidentally stumbled upon a back door yesterday," said John getting to the place where the file appeared.

"You can say a very well hidden back door that wasn't there until somebody accessed it near midnight. I was going to ignore it at first but it was access again three times before this morning. You want to know the funny thing. When I check the transaction logs to see how many times this file been opened, it's not even recorded. It's like it doesn't exist. I'm not sure if that's paranoia because why would you create a file hidden from your own personal database, that's not officially connected to Cyberdyne's database."

"Because it's illegal and she doesn't want it traced to her not by the slightest," Seen answered, as it was an odd behavior. "Here's another question we need to ask ourselves, is this Weaver actions or somebody else in her corporation. If this is Weaver doing then we're greatly underestimating her capabilities."

John shifted through the notebook papers scattered around the keyboard and found what he was searching for; hoping Seen would lend her assistance on the manner.

"I written down the code as fast as I could when the file came up but it was so much, I barely got any of it," John gave Seen a loose-leaf notebook paper. "I've been staring at it all morning and I got nothing. I was thinking of getting Cameron to memorize when it came up the last time but the file's action is irregular and it dissipates after a minute so I couldn't call upon her in time."

Seen looked over the command prompt as a few coding jumped at her. "I think I know what it is. Fraud companies, criminals and black market dealers started to use this method this year by finding an undetectable way of creating dummy accounts as it would dissolve into nothing until it was used again, instead of letting the account sit in a bank until it's noticed. The CIA and Interpol been trying to plug this hole up for a while but they can't catch it because it's nothing _too_ catch until it's accessed. You would need a super computer to watch every transaction being done in every bank account across the world to trace something that massive. But since different countries have different laws on how they conduct their business in keeping the loyalty of their customers, the hole will never be plugged, unless an agreement comes to pass."

"Maybe we can come up with a program to notify us when the file appear and copy the code to grant us access to that file by using the reference to the unfinished codes we have now. If we use the unfinished code, like a blueprint, then the program will understand what file to search for when it appears." John suggested.

"Then I suggest we make a lot of hot pockets." Seen smiled agog from his idea.

Trying to construct a program dealing with Weaver's security system and remain undetected was going to be difficult. Challenges like these always excited her.

"I guess that means no school then." John smirked as this boosted Seen's energy at that thought of her dream finally coming true.

"I think you're mistaken."

An all too familiar voice behind them made Seen cringe that her dream was destroyed before it begun. John looked at his mother, unaware of her presence from entering the basement.

"Though I would love to attend school today but this is important." Seen stated.

Her loathing for not attending school, Sarah will never understand the girl.

"The weekend starts after you're done with school day, which will give you plenty of time to work on this over the weekend. Besides don't you have an exam today that counts twenty-five percent of your grade?" Sarah said.

"I do?" Seen asked, confused of having no recollection of the test.

John smirked by her facial expression. "Yeah, in history class, remember."

"As long as I get a D in the class, everybody wins." Seen said shamelessly eating a piece of the hot pocket she brought down earlier.

John chuckled from that comment as she had some point to justify her answer. Going to college probably was not on there to do list when they graduate high school. Being a fugitive most likely will not fly with any college. How long could they live under there false names, John wondered.

"Get to school. Please." Sarah said and went back up stairs amused by Seen's answer as well.

"Why didn't you tell me we had a test in history class?" Seen placed the unfinished hot pocket down on the plate.

"I figured you asked Cameron since you sleep through the class all the time."

"That is not true. I stayed up for one class period."

"That was because the teacher threw a party for us because it was Halloween." John declared.

"I'm just saying everyday should be party day since that's all you kids will do when you get to college. Go to parties and get drunk. Not even caring for the educational aspect for the reason of attending college."

"How would you know?" John asked as this conversation was becoming entertaining.

"Because I went to college." Seen smirked and started to head up the stairs.

Nonplussed and curious, what did she fully mean by that, John thought. "Wait. You went to college?"

* * *

Students flooded the college campus, lingering to their next class, enjoying the sunny day outside on the lawn and some playing sport games. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the weather as it was rare to notice when pressure of exams are always at every turn during the end of the semester.

Stern gaze read the lettering on the front of the building saying, ITT Technology School. Held in his hand, taken from Agent James Ellison's home, was a picture of his target, as Cromarite began to walk towards the entrance of the college campus.

Inside, he precisely observed his surrounding carefully. He had to be cautious of his actions. One false move and his target would know he was a machine given the particularize description Skynet collected on the girl's high skilled abilities.

A woman behind an office desk, the same woman Nicholas was charming, looked at Cromartie suspicious. She watched the tall man walk towards her desk and stopped in front of it like a mechanical soldier. He gave his usual curled up half smile as he showed the woman Seen's picture.

"Hello. I have been told this girl attends this school. I would like to have a word with her please." Cromartie politely asked.

"You know you're the fourth person that's been looking for Ms. Winters in over a month," said the secretary finding this ironic and being the first in her book. "Let me guess…Judging from your nice stylish suite…FBI?"

"Yes," said Cromartie flatly. "Can I speak with her please? This involves an investigation I am conducting."

"I'm going to tell the others that came before you, she hasn't been to school in over a month. If you're looking for her files on our school database, unfortunately they have somehow disappeared. Which is still a mystery to us since I've seen the girl numerous times on college grounds. It's like she was never here." The secretary explained as it sounded spooky to her.

"Thank you for your time." Cromartie smiled, as it was a dead end to ask the secretary any further questions. His best option was to ask other students on the campus on the whereabouts of his target.

He turned around and walked away from the desk but not before passing a young boy on the way.

"Excuse me miss," said the teenage boy as the secretary gave the boy an irritated look.

"Hi, my name is Jeffery. I'm looking for a girl that I heard attains here. It's really strange how this all sounds to me but hmmm….her name is Seen Winters. She use to work with me and I need her help in fixing my computer…like desperately in fixing my computer." Jeffery explained smiling nervously.

"Wow," The secretary had to laugh at this or maybe this was a prank. Why was this girl so special, she questioned. "Let me guess…Boyfriend?"

"Ehh…No," Jeffery felt awkward by her comment and why would she come to that conclusion. "I'm pretty sure I'm just a friend."

A sudden cold chill run up his spin as he heard the thumping of heavy shoes stopped behind him. The tinkling feeling surging through his body made his stomach turn as it resembled another time in his life when he use to be bullied in elementary school, as a sign of danger was near.

Jeffery turned around slowly and stared up from the tall structured man having a gleeful smile express on his face.

"Let's take a walk shall we." Cromartie said.

* * *

On school grounds sitting on a bench eating potato chips, John wondered where the female duo, Cameron and Seen was as he looked at his watch. It was their free period and yet they both was nowhere in site.

This behavior was strange coming from Cameron as he thought she would be watching him every five seconds. However, since Seen appeared she was spending more time with her then him. He thought he would feel relieved that his protector was not hovering over him; unfortunately, he was apprehensive knowing what type of danger that follows Seen. The scary part about that notion was her ability to lie with a straight face from her perilous acts, which put his mother on edge lately. If her precarious acts involved Cameron in the mix, his mother would have a heart attack, John thought.

Luckily, as of yet, his mother was safe from health problems. Although, the missing presence from his protector, suspicion arouse as John thought the two girls were either planning something behind closed doors or right in front of him and was unable to piece the puzzle from their plan. He hoped he stumbles upon it before his mother does. His goal was to keep the peace in the house for another week to ease his nerves.

Darkness fell upon his vision, as warmth from soft hands cover his eyesight. He smirked from the strange behavior not defensive to the action.

"Guess who?" A voice asked in a ludic fashion.

"I don't know," said John playing along. "Do I want to know?"

Riley released her hold upon his eyes and lightly tapped on his shoulder teasingly as he knew of her presence.

"Got you Mr. Baum." Riley said smiling and sat next to him on the bench.

"Chip?" John placed his bag out for her to take one.

"Well thank you Mr. Baum." Riley took a chip and ate one.

"You like calling me by my last name?"

"Indeed I do. But don't ask me why I call you it. I guess it just latched on a month ago when we met," said Riley as she saw John gaily behavior. She became curious from his sudden change in attitude. The crease across his face proves this from his genuine smile.

"What are you so... cheerful about? Something good happen on your absence from school lately?"

The question was a mystery even from John since he came back from the mission. It was inconclusive to judge the truthfulness from his excitement. Was it from the successful mission or the praise from Seen after the mission?

He became obsessive since the mission over the simple praise. Did her military status made it stand out than a random person speaking the words 'nice job'? Still confused by this himself, it gave him motivation and determination to complete the decrypting program before the weekend ended for her.

"I don't know," said John playing it off. "Why? Do I look happier then normal?"

"Yes you do," Riley replied amused by his sarcastic comment. "Well anyway, it is a Friday night. You want to hang out or something?"

"And go where?"

"I don't know, just somewhere. We can drive around LA until we figure it out. I like driving to places."

Riley glanced at a couple in the distance holding hands and peak kissing among one another, showing the love from their relationship. She cleared her throat and looked at John feeling somewhat nervous they have not experienced their first kissed. She was even uncertain if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. All she knew was they liked each other's company.

The vibe she felt sometimes from John, she was uncertain if she meant more to him then just a friend. It plagued her at nights sometimes, which kept her mind occupied from the other memories that she desperately wanted to forget in her life.

The long pause between them felt awkward as John notice something was bothering her. Unfortunately, asking her now was out of the question as he saw Cameron and Seen at a vending machine that distracted his thoughts instantly.

"Hey you know what? How about we rent a couple movies instead of riding around LA and then we can hang out at your place. I'll bring the popcorn." Riley said jubilantly.

She thought this would be a good idea and it would allow her to become more familiar with John on where their relationship was.

John hemmed and hawed when she insisted his place for the event. With all that was happening in his life lately, he was hesitant if that was a good suggestion. He never brought anybody home from outside there circle before.

Would his mother yell at him for Riley's unexplainable presence in the house? Would his uncle share his mother's opinion about outsiders? Would Cameron distaste Riley even further because she was a security risk? The only person he thought would probably have his back in all of this would be Seen. She liked to stay neutral in situations such as these and plus she knew Riley from art class.

Then John started to replay everything in his mind again and wondered why he was denying himself to have the day off and spend it with a friend. He most likely earned it and he could start creating the program tomorrow for Seen. It was a Friday and he thought he should enjoy it.

"Okay," said John smiling as her face lit up joyfully. "How about Zombie movies then?"

"Dawn of the Dead the classic or the remake." Riley suggested as they were surprisingly both good.

"You choose."

"Okay then. I'll also bring Shawn of the Dead, very funny movie."

"Sure why not." John chuckled, as he never heard of the movie before. Whatever she wanted, he will watch it. He wanted to make this her day since he was unsure what was bothering her when his mind became preoccupied.

"Then it is a date. After school." Riley said thrilled as she took another chip from his bag and walked off.

John repeated the word _date_ again in his mind. Was it a date? He began to question their friendship. The sudden date could conclude where their relationship stood. He just hoped it goes well.

* * *

The thriving restaurant of Joe's Place was always busy at the beginning of the weekend as families were pouring in left and right. It was hard to keep up as the waiters were running everywhere trying to attain to people's order. Mr. Sullen, the storeowner, was slaving over the stove as he was doing four jobs at once being short staffed. One of his employee's, Jeffery, was absent and was pronounced a no call no show. Even though he knew teenagers were unreliable sometimes but this was unusual for Jeffery absence, the manager thought.

Although it was hectic in the restaurant, immediately, the store manager noticed Cromartie walking through the front door. From his nice tailored suit and his straight-faced expression, the strange man looked suspicious as the storeowner made sure Cromartie was oblivious from his questionable stare.

The machine walked over to a woman working the register as she was ringing a customer up for their food. A photo was place in front of her as this quickly grabbed the attention from the cashier. She recognized the girl in the photo as she was curious why the man had it in his hand.

"I'm with the FBI," Cromartie showed the confused woman his badge on his hip and covered it back with his suit jacket. "I'm conducting an investigation from a fugitive case and I think this girl may have knowledge of the two fugitives' whereabouts. Her name is Seen Winters and I heard she work's here."

"To tell the truth, Seen hasn't been working here in over a month," said the woman in a southern accent. "She hasn't called, none of us have heard from here or seen her. It's like she disappeared. However, I've been working at dinning places such as these for ten years…these kids come and go. It doesn't surprise me all that much. Although the girl was an odd child I can tell you that."

"Odd?" Cromartie titled his head like a curious dog as this could give him more information on what his target was doing in Los Angles. "How?"

"Well, not much. Let me think," The woman looked at a kid at a table doodling in a coloring book. "Oh yes I remember. I know I saw her sometimes, well most of the time, hanging out at the newsstand across the street from here reading comic books."

"Comic books?" That word was foreign to Cromartie as he wanted to know what that was.

"I know weird. I never seen a girl read comic books before like her. It was like an extreme hobby with her. She would carry like three or four with her to work and read them during her breaks. However, I think I saw her going to the comic book store from time to time located at the corner on 1600 Norway Street. Thinking about it now, I'm actually positive about it." The woman explained.

Cromartie smiled as that was all he needed. "Thank you for your time."

"Is it something bad?" She asked with concern in her voice.

Cromartie turned around and looked at the woman again.

"I mean…I hope she's not in any trouble. Los Angles can bring out the worse in people and I've seen it happen on many occasions. I just want to know if she's okay."

"You don't have to worry ma'am. I'll make sure she's safe." Cromartie curled up his lip in a smile.

He turned around like a robotic doll as his expression changed back to impassive and began to walk out of the restaurant. The storeowner took out his cell phone inside one of the apron pockets he was wearing and began to dial a number quickly. A male voice was heard on the receiving end.

"Brandon, we have a little situation. I will advice you to get in contact with Seen. We have a hole that needs to be buried." Mr. Sullen glanced out the restaurant window watching Cromarite get into a car.

* * *

Walking home from school, every house they passed, Seen noticed the satellite dish ranging from variety of sizes positioned on different areas on the homes. Imprinted on each satellite dish, was the company logo from the provider that rented the equipment to their consumers.

An idea came to her as this might solve the weak signal coming into the house she was unable to fix without arousing too much suspicion.

"Was it wise to leave John alone?" Cameron asked her friend trying to understand her logic in accepting his request.

"He'll be fine," said Seen in her calm manner, still inspecting each house they walked passed. "Besides, he'll be home before us…or so he says."

"John can be reckless sometimes." Cameron said giving an admonition response from his past actions in protecting his younger self.

"John's always reckless. Especially now that he's a teenager. Teenagers tend to see how far they can get away with their actions from their parents. Its being rebellious is what they call it. I call it pure stupidity." Seen replied as she stopped at a particular home that caught her interest greatly.

"I know. You still do it." Cameron slightly smiled. She remembered her actions, as Seen was still a teenager as well.

"Ha ha," Seen mock her sarcastic statement. "I'll let you have that one."

Watering his lawn with the water hoes, as it looked rich and neutered then any other lawn on the block, the homeowner stared at the two girls curious that were admiring his home.

"Say…That's a nice satellite." Seen brightly smiled.

* * *

Riley was impressed standing in the middle of a living merge dinning room of John's home. It sure had that home smell to it, like old hardwood floor, age furniture smell and the design as well. It was nothing what she pictured it to be. Judging by the weird persona John gave at school, she thought more of a typical broken home or something along the line. However, it was clean and neat in which brought more mystery why John avoided interaction with other students at school besides his sister, Morris and her. Maybe she could find out today, she thought.

"Nice place." Riley said still holding her book bag slung over her shoulder as John was standing a few feet away from her.

"Yeah I guess." John coyly smiled in second-guessing his judgment to bring her home.

Even though Seen agreed with his decision, knowing she would, but that still left three other people not on the same page as him. When he left school, he swore he saw Cameron scowling look towards Riley, still disapproving of her presence. It could be him being paranoid knowing machines are unable to feel emotions, but luckily Seen was there to calm the tension in the atmosphere. She was very good at that with her sarcastic wit in which John enjoyed that trait about her even though others thought she was unusual.

Noticing it was quiet in the house Riley asked, "Where's your sister and mom?"

"My sister is hanging out with a friend and my mom's probably working to make sure the world stay in one piece." John said, as his answer was actually true.

"Your mother is a social worker?" Riley asked interested in learning personal information about John she never asked before.

"You can say that. Her people skills come in handy when getting what she wants." John said bashfully as his mother was very direct in her job when it came to taking down Skynet.

"Hey, if it saves the little people then hats off to her. I heard being a social worker is hard work." Riley smirked. She wondered what his mother was like and wanted to meet her in person.

"You have no idea." John mumbled. If she found out that his mother was called 'The Legend' that trained the famous 'John Connor' then she would pass out, or run for the hills concluding that his entire family was psychotic.

The kitchen caught her attention as she lingered over to it wanting to make the popcorn she brought.

"Okay so, I got zombie movies, vampire movies and Transformers the original cartoon movie for our entertaining selection today." Riley said.

Confused by that last choice even though he knew what it was, John asked, "Transformers?"

"Oh come on. You're trying to tell me you've never liked watching Transformers when you were a kid. If Optimus Prime was running for president, I would vote for him because the guy is so badass." Riley said enthusiastically.

He oddly looked at her. "But he's a robot…From space. And I also think you actually have to be born in United States to be the president."

Riley humorously smirked. "Smartass."

She chuckled and went over to the microwave, unwrapped the plastic covering to the popcorn and placed it inside.

After thinking about her comment, he wanted her full opinion about robots. Although he knew it was just fictional from her prospective, but it would give him insight on her personally if she ever found out about Cameron true nature and his life destiny.

"So…what do you think…you know…about robots?" John asked nervously.

Riley was oblivious from John's discomfort as her attention was on the microwave and turned the machine on.

"If I had my own personal robot, then I would ask him to do my homework," said Riley jokily as she chuckled at the idea. "I'm just playing but, I guess we would hang out, go to movies. I don't know, I guess teenager stuff. He'll probably be a cool friend to have around. If anybody messes with me he'll protect me."

The refrigerator was her next stop as she opened it and grabbed a can soda.

"That's kind of interesting," said John as Cameron was mostly like that with him.

Although it wasn't the same feeling since the damage to her chip and she tried to kill him. However, he was trying to re-hatch the broken bond between them. Recently it has been going well even though they do have their arguments.

"What's interesting?" Riley asked as she opened the soda can.

"I'm surprised you didn't say _it_, like most people but you called it _him_."

Riley slightly smiled in a sedative way. "Are you jealous?"

John felt intimidated by her body language as this told his mind she wanted to be more then just friends and it came out from talking about alien robots. How ironic, he thought.

"No, not really," said John and then looked out the living room for a second. For some reason the question about robots was still on his mind. "But if you really met a real robot, would you keep that mind set?"

Riley was dubious why John keep this conversation going but she would go along.

"First, I would flip out, hands down. Then I would lose my mind trying to keep it safe from the outside world. It seems like adults always want to change something cool into something destructive. No wonder why this world is screwed up." Riley said sadden.

John noticed the disconsolate tone in her voice when she answered him. Was it compassion or was it something else that happened in her life she was trying to indicate in confessing to him.

"Anyway Mister, are you going to show me your room?" Riley asked switching out of her depressed mood quickly to her usual spunky self. "You probably got a cool guy room or something, like rock and roll posters plastered everywhere on the wall."

"Well," John cursed to himself and forgotten about his still childish room. It was now that he started to regret bringing her over his house. What would she think of him when she saw his room? Shamefaced, the thought made it unbearable to imagine her reaction. It was time for a good lie.

"My family just moved into this house not to long ago and I haven't changed my room from what it was before. I've been busy. Extremely busy." It was the truth since his hectic life has been a problem for him over the months.

"How busy can you be?" Riley asked curious.

The blue cloud wallpaper surrounding the room added by kiddy airplanes with red and grey designs covering the rest of it, the red, yellow and blue bed boards to the small miniature furniture, Riley smiled at John's bedroom design standing in the doorway.

John just wanted to jump out of the window at this point of embarrassment. Second on his to do list, change his bedroom.

* * *

"The deals are falling into place after the convincing performance from John Henry at the I.Q. party. Things are going according to plan for us." Weaver said and then took a sip of her whine.

"The Turk is called John Henry now. I have a feeling it was Brian's idea." Dealer said amused by the name and understanding what the names signifies.

Both women were in Weaver's office eating lunch, discussing the future development of Cyberdyne. Though excited from the turn of events from the party, Weaver had an odd feeling that Dealer felt vivaciously today. She had a feeling it happened during the party and John Henry was not the center from her blithely persona.

It was difficult to read Dealer and unsure if that was a good or bad given the position she was in. Weaver liked to be able to predict her associates in understanding their capabilities to succeed at a job when presented. However, for Dealer she would only draw a blink. If an emotion merged from her boss, the erratic act would lead to an uncharacteristic action the next minute. It was unknown to Weaver what Dealer was capable of doing that sometimes put her on edge when acting upon unauthorized action without her knowledge.

"I'm surprised." Weaver said always-studying Dealer when she paid a visit.

"About what?" Dealer asked eating her lunch.

"You like Chinese food and not just any Chinese food." Weaver said becoming fascinated from this discovery as it was unusual to understand it herself.

"Chinese food is Chinese food no matter where it comes from. Paying it for cheap is where people get the best Chinese food instead out of a restaurant that can't even tell me what's in an egg roll." Dealer explained enjoying the lunch she was eating.

"Another interesting fact about you Dealer, you're not kin on the best of the best as I assumed you might be. Then again, maybe it deals with your change in behavior lately."

Dealer shot her a glance wondering what she was concluding in her mind. "And that is?"

"I don't know…after the party you seem…"

"Human." Dealer said and gave a slight smile.

"I was just going to say more enthusiastic," said Weaver as her comment was a bizarre reply. "However, I also know you're not excited about the success from the party. Are you going to tell me what actually happened at the party behind closed doors? I know everything that goes around my own home."

Dealer smirked that she did notice the actions at the party besides the presentation. All of a sudden, the image of the teenage boy flash in her mind, as she knew it was he. John Connor.

"Nothing happened," Dealer finally said. "I'll worry about security. You do your part."

Judging by her defensive comment, Weaver decided to drop the conversation. One thing she learned about Dealer since she employed her; never make her think one was a liability. If that happens, the person vanished as if they were a ghost to begin with. Weaver liked to stay visible to the public. She had to be cautious not to lead Dealer into replacing her position.

Dealer glanced at Weaver deep in thought as she smirked. "You'll never figure me out Catherine. Only one person have and that person in not in _this_ time."

Another peculiar comment, Weaver thought. "Dead?"

"I'm working on it." Dealer said as she bit into her egg roll.

* * *

Laughter was heard in John's room, as Riley and John were enjoying their company with one another and being entertained with the movie choice Riley have suggested, Transformers The Movie. Although John wanted to watch Shawn of the Dead from reading the description on the back of the DVD case, however Riley explained the mood was off to watch it just yet. Since he wanted to make it her day, John complied too her demands.

Watching robots duke it out with one another, good vs. evil, this was actually his life or what it will be in the future when he reprogram the machines to fight for their cause such as Cameron and Uncle Bob. Even though it was odd watching a cartoon movie, he did feel nostalgic re-hatching the memory when he was eight years old. Watching cartoons in the morning and reading comic books was the only time he felt like a normal child since he rarely had any friends.

"Wow, I really miss watching this show. The 80's and 90's were the good years when cartoons was at it's peak. Now it's all educational now." Riley said sitting next to him on his child like bed.

"I guess you can say that." John said scratching his head then smiling at her.

His smile made Riley stare at him for a minute as her stomach was feeling nervous or others would say butterflies. Being around John, she felt different then the other boys she hung around with. She felt safe and able to express herself more freely then telling a lie to elude the fact she was different then normal girls. This unknown feeling, she wanted to express this with him and understand where their relationship was heading. She wanted to know. No, she needed to know.

"You know John. You're a really cool guy." Riley said.

"A cool guy?" John repeated amused by her logical response in describing him. Judging by his room, he thought she might have a wrong impression about him.

"Well yeah," said Riley. "Most guys I met are so in love with themselves, all they want to do is score the next hot girl they meet and nothing else."

Riley stared into his gentle eyes as she moved in closer towards him on his bed but still kept a few inches between them.

"But…you're different. You care about people."

John could almost feel her breath touching his skin as his heart began to race at a rapid pace. With the sexual tension in the air, John got a definite answer of what there relationship was to one another. He straightened himself as his hands became sweaty from his nerves. He wanted to touch her but was afraid of the reaction she might give him. If only she made the move first, it would not be so difficult. He wanted to kiss her but felt constricted by his thoughts to stop his movements to carry out the request. The problems in his life were stopping him and he knew it. He invited her too much into his life and any further could result in deadly consequences.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. His mix messages already began Riley in her pursuit to advance forward. Cautious in her movements, John knew what Riley intended to do, as his body was not resisting, indicating to her to proceed with her full intentions. His body was following his hormones than his mind as he closed his eyes waiting for her kiss.

Almost about to touch his lips, Riley paused.

A few seconds passed as John felt nothing. Why did she stop? He opened his eyes and saw her gaze divert towards his window in a curious fashion. Then voices caught his attention outside. He cursed to himself as it had to happen now.

"I think somebody is here." Riley said and slide off his bed.

Wanting to know whom it was as the voice sound familiar, she walked to his window. She opened the curtains but was puzzled as this stopped her actions. Although the room she could take as being unusual but what was on his windows made her become suspicious about John.

"You duct tape your windows?" Riley looked at John baffled.

Florid in complexion from his embarrassment, John forgot about the window. He thanked Seen in his mind because it was her idea. Now it was time for a quick lie again.

"It came with the room." He said.

Ignoring it for now, Riley opened his window as sunlight poured into the once darken room. Two figures walking towards the house caught her attention. Surprised, she had to double check what she was witnessing as she saw Cameron and Seen carrying a satellite around the back of the house.

"What's she doing here?" Riley suddenly walked out of John's room.

John cursed to himself again as it could be his mother. Why did she have to come now in her bad timing?

"Wait Riley!" He called, chasing her out of his room.

Riley was now stuck on autopilot wanting to know why _she_ was here. Coming to the base of the steps, she looked around the combined living and dinning room. She knew they came into the house but where did they venture too. Riley heard rattling at the front door entrance as she saw the wooden door swing open.

She paused as if caught in an action of stealing something in the house.

Sarah walked through the front door and started to look at the mail as she sighed that it was only bills for the month.

However, an unfamiliar presence was in the room as Sarah vision glanced forward. Her eyes made contact with a blonde hair, young teenage girl, as Riley looked surprised by seeing her presence.

Not seeing anybody in the room, the first thought came to Sarah's mind was this girl was robbing them or gathering information to give to her employer. Whatever her motives were, Sarah thought the girl was going to answer to her gun.

"Who are you?" Sarah finally asked with a stern look. Her hand slowly placed the mail on the nightstand next to her as well as the car keys. She did not want to make any big movements just incase the girl had a weapon on her.

Footsteps come down the staircase as eyes meet her son. His quandary look directed towards his mother gave her the indication that this girl was with him.

"Hi I'm Riley…from John's school." Riley spoke as she pointed to John now standing next to her in an out of breath manner.

Everything was starting to unravel quickly then his original plan in introducing Riley to his mother, John thought. He was going to break it to her gently knowing how she felt about company entering their home no matter whom they were. To her they were all a security risk.

Furious that her son would bring a classmate to their home, Sarah calmed herself and brought her tone to a respectable level not to frighten the girl.

"John you care to explain?" Sarah asked forcing a smile shadowed by her furious anger inside that wanted to lash out at her son's ill-advised actions.

John knew that smile. It read anger and in along the line in killing him. He was lucky for once in his life he was the savior of all mankind or she might have killed him or shot him, which ever came first.

About to justify his actions, noise in the background caught the people in the room attention. What Riley was searching for in the beginning walked out from the kitchen.

"I'm telling you he won't miss it. It's called company insurance." Seen chuckled as Cameron smiled about that notion.

However, the scene they stumbled upon made both girls stopped in their tracks. A glower look snapped towards Seen as she saw the furious look inside Sarah daggering eyes. The facial expression John's mother was showing she knew this was going to turn ugly in a few second. Before it came to that, Seen thought she should speak her case now before Sarah began shooting up a storm.

"I have nothing to do with this." Seen said.

This time she was unable to help John from the wrath of his mother. He was on his own and besides she already had her fair share from Sarah's yelling the entire month. She needed a break.

"John. Kitchen. Now." Sarah said pronouncing every word how outrange she was with everybody in the house at this point from their callow behavior.

She would have started with Seen giving her military status, hoping she would be in charge if Derek and her were absent, but decided to give her son the ear full first.

Sarah walked into the kitchen ahead of her son.

"I'll be right back." John said telling Riley in a low voice.

"Did I do something wrong?" Riley asks concerned, as he knew his mother was enraged about her presence.

John sighed about his mother's reaction. "No. Just stay here okay. This will just take a minute."

Watching John trail off into the kitchen to confront his mother, Cameron eyes directed at Riley, watching the girl in her deadpan expression. She told John to stay away from Riley and know he caused a problem by his actions. It always confused her why John does these things to jeopardize his security. Either way, it gave her a chance to analyze her threat level.

The stare Riley received from Cameron creep her out as always when she was around John's sister. Her impassive gaze gave her goose bumps. Then Riley looked at Seen, the person she's been trying to find since she noticed her presence outside the house. As always, Seen weird behavior was always an eye catcher as she gave Riley an enliven smile. She would not be surprised she attracted Cameron to her. They were kind of the same. Strange unusual girls one would say.

"What are you doing here Seen?" Riley asked amused by their unusual reencounters with one another.

"I'm…Cameron's friend." Seen said avidly while patting Cameron on the back.

The emotionless machine slowly looked at Seen elated behavior as her weird human friend gave her a smile.

Pacing back and fourth, Sarah had a jokily smile on her face as she had to think this was funny. She watched her son come into the kitchen.

"Who's Riley?" Sarah asked biting her tongue to contain her voice in wanting to scream at the top of her lungs for the whole neighborhood to hear.

"She's from school. She wanted to hang out so we decided on movies." John said leisurely as his mother was misinterpreting the entire situation.

"John she can't be here right now."

John started to become irritated with the rules and regulation in this house that annoyed him to no end.

"Why is that?" John answered. "She's not a security threat. She's normal, not a machine and not trying to kill me."

"Look John, I know you want a normal life to live, but we can't have people knowing where we live, especially this house." Sarah said feeling his loneliness to be around others his age. However, in his predicament it could never be, as long as Skynet was still alive.

John wanted to scream about this, about everything his mother always telling him. However, today she was not going to get her way. Today he promised himself he was going to make this day happy for Riley and enjoy himself on a Friday for once. Was it so much to enjoy an afternoon? Well today, he decided it would be that day.

"She's not a security risk and that is it." John's answer audacity shocked his mother from making another comment.

He gave her a hard stern look and walked out of the kitchen. This attitude surprised Sarah about her son in defining her wishes.

"If it's going to be a problem I can leave." Riley said as John approached her.

"No it's fine. Come on." John kindly smiled and took her hand.

He guided her up the steps as Sarah watched below with her arms folded disapproved by her son actions. She wanted to stop him because she knew how stories like these end, when they find one to soothed their loneliness. She wanted her son to avoid it as much possible. Judging from her past actions of failures to keep her son safe, she realized she couldn't prevent everything.

Hearing rustling behind her, Sarah turned her attention towards the closet. Seen took out an electrical drill from a toolbox and inspected the device as it was capable for the task she needed it for.

With the heated tension in the room, Seen decided to reply to the question of what Sarah was thinking before she could say it.

"Is this my fault now?" Seen asked and looked at the worried mother. "Humans are social animals Sarah. None of us would be here if they weren't."

Seen walked towards the front door and outside as Cameron placed a ladder on the side of the house to begin their side project.

* * *

On edge trying to enjoy the movie Shawn of the Dead, John was still furious about his mother's reaction. Why was she so arrogant to understand where he was coming from? She lived her teenage years' normal and it was not fair for him to be deprived from that experience. Becoming the future leader of mankind, a title he never wanted, was never an honor, but a burden. Was his life always going to be like this, allowing Skynet dictate his life? Will he always fall a victim to his destiny? John clenched his fist in frustration at his side replaying the horrible events in his life from the never sleeping monster.

Perturbed by his doleful expression, Riley noticed John's discomfort.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked solicitously.

Snapping out of his thoughts, John smiled at his concerned friend or girlfriend as of now. "Sure. It is nothing. This movie is pretty funny."

He was lying, too focused about his depressing life to understand what was happening in the movie to crack a genuine smile.

Coming to the top of the stairs, Sarah was going to head to the bathroom until she stopped at a particular door. It was John's bedroom door, as the door was closed. She heard voices' talking, as it was her son and Riley.

Still fuming about the situation, she thought her son would have more common sense to never invite anybody to the house. Her soul purpose in her life was for his protection and he was jeopardizing it with this recent stunt. Disliking the idea of being pressed upon to be the enforcer in the house but she had no choice for everybody's safety.

"You know you can talk to me." Riley says worried, as she wanted John to enjoy himself acknowledging his melancholy expression across his face.

John looked at her, desperately wanting to tell her everything about his life but he refuse. He did not know where to begin if he could.

"It's okay…seriously." He said.

Riley knew he was holding back and decided to take a different approach in finding out the reason. "So…That's your mom?"

"Yes…that's…my mom." John said disappointed.

"I'm surprised."

John curiously glanced at her. "Surprised about what?"

"She didn't overreact with Seen."

"Well," John had to think about this twice in explaining Seen's situation. "Seen's a special case and also the fact that she lives with us."

"She's related to you too?!" Riley asked surprised.

"No!" John quickly said. "She's…adopted. My mother adopted her. She kind of fell into our lap or actually we fell into her lap."

Riley thought about it as it made sense considering her approval status with Seen and not her. "I guess I'll grow on your mother. She's not all that bad if she's taking kids into her home."

"Yeah I guess so." John replied, as she had no idea the real Sarah Connor.

"I guess it's the process of being a teenager," Riley smiled brightly as she light tapped John's shoulder to cheer him up from his gloomy expression.

John finally gave a genuine smile acknowledging her corky action as it was working. He needed this feeling of being normal around others. Even if it was for a brief minute, John decided to take their relationship slow, encase something was to happen to keep her safe. In the Connor family, something always happens.

Hearing the entire conversation, Sarah walked away from his door and headed to the bathroom. The conversation between John and Riley made her think more clearly about her son's life. The insufferable loneliness that occupied her existence everyday of her life since Kyle Reese left this world. It still pain struck her every time she thought about him.

About to turn on the faucet sink, Sarah heard banging on top of the roof as she looked up. The movement on the roof disturbed her entire thought process as she wanted to know what was the engineer and the machine doing this time.

Eyes focused above, baffled, Sarah stared at the rooftop of the house as Cameron and Seen was securing a satellite dish into position. Feeling trapped into one of Seen's head games, Sarah wondered where she acquired the satellite just like the other questionable items the girl had hidden away that she found around the house.

Finally done, Seen shook Cameron's hand playfully in a job well done as they both smiled at each other from the childish exchange. Making her way to the ladder, Seen saw Sarah bemused expression, wondering about their actions.

"Where you get that?" Sarah asked because it finally dawned on her that she stole it.

Seen made her way down the ladder and smiled at John's mother. "From a generous neighbor."

Sarah looked down the driveway and then at the girl curious from which neighbor.

"You stole it didn't you?"

"I'm borrowing it," Seen replied, finding it hard to accept Sarah concern about her thieving actions. The whole property including almost everything in the house was stolen. "They'll get it back when were done saving the world. It maybe a couple months or a year but they'll get it back."

Sarah was aphonic from that answer.

"Trust me." Seen smirked and walked passed Sarah.

Last coming down the ladder, Cameron gave Sarah her usual blank expression. "We'll give it back. Besides, they have insurance."

Disconcerted, Sarah watch the two girls head back into the house still befuddled by there bizarre answers. With everything that was happening in her life, she finally convinced herself that she was truly trap in the twilight zone.


End file.
